Created by George Lucas, the sci-fi saga quickly became one of the highest-grossing film franchises in the world and continues to capture public attention and affection to this day. We may receive compensation for the products and services mentioned in this story, but the opinions are those of the author. Compensation may affect where offers appear. We haven't included all available products or offers.
Learn more about how we make money and our editorial policies. While Star Wars is now an inevitable media giant that fans enjoy in the form of popular streaming TV shows such as The Mandalorian; cutting-edge theme park attractions; best-selling video games, toys and books; and much more, movies are how most people first fell in love with the franchise. Our team wanted to celebrate the cinematic impact that Star Wars has had on lives around the world this 4th of May and beyond, so we decided to break down everything related to Star Wars at the box office, including critical and fan ratings, the total amount each film grossed in the U.S. UU.
While it may seem like a distant memory from a long time ago and a galaxy far, far away, there was a time when people would go to see movies in the movies instead of broadcasting them in their living room. And every time a new Star Wars movie came out, people flocked. For many film lovers, a new installment was a must see, as the most die-hard fans used to watch the most recent film several times. As a result, there are many people who can say that they have watched several Star Wars movies during their initial theatrical releases, and they gladly buy one ticket at a time.
That got us thinking about how much people could have spent on Star Wars tickets over the years. We also averaged review scores from three sources (critical score from Rotten Tomatoes, audience score from Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB) to rate each film as “good,” bad, or “normal”, and determined how much people could have spent watching the Star Wars movies in each of those categories. Of course, part of the reason for that difference is due to the cost of tickets when these movies began to be released in the 1970s compared to the release dates of the most recent installments. To take that into account, our team also calculated the average ticket price for each film based on the rate of inflation from the time of its release.
Finally, our team found the average ticket price for films in each of the three categories, both at the time of their release and adjusted for inflation, as can be seen in the following graph. As mentioned, we used three different sources to determine the overall quality of each Star Wars film for evaluation purposes, and the average of the three was used as a final assessment at all times. We use that average score to account for some important differences of opinion between critics and the public. We decided to visualize the differences in these scores to illustrate how, even for a franchise as beloved as Star Wars, not everyone agrees on what constitutes a good film.
If examined in this way, we see that there is a consensus about the quality of the original trilogy, and fans and critics alike praise all three films. However, fans liked Return of the Jedi more than critics, with a rating of 94%, while critics only gave it a respectable 82%. Similarly, fans and critics have a 10% difference from one another when evaluating the first two films in the prequel trilogy, episodes I, II and III, before diverging slightly on the last film of the three. Regarding the latest installment of this trilogy, critics had a more favorable opinion of Revenge of the Sith, rating it 14% more than fans.
However, in both cases, the IMDB ratings basically divided the difference between critics and fans of Rotten Tomatoes, suggesting that IMDB might be the best resource for a balanced assessment of how good a given Star Wars movie really is. Although we think that Star Wars movies make huge amounts of money no matter how good or bad they are, we decided to put this idea to the test. We compared the average score of each film in the franchise with the box office performance. Evidence suggests that quality has an impact on box office performance, at least in relation to the franchise as a whole.
To add context and make a more equitable comparison, we included both real box office gross and inflation-adjusted gross for each film. The outliers on the list are also outliers in the franchise, as the anthological films Rogue One and Solo received more critical than commercial success. Since these films stray a little away from the general narrative of the nine major movies, it's not surprising to see that fans don't clamor to watch them with the same fervor. To this point, we have based all our evaluations on the box office performance during the initial theatrical release of each film.
Of course, the initial releases aren't the only times these movies were in theaters, as anyone who remembers watching the infamous “Special Editions” in 1997 can attest. To get a more complete idea of how Star Wars has fared in all its theatrical releases, we have created these lists showing all of the United States. Theatrical release, including the year of release, what part of the franchise each release belongs to, average ticket price and box office performance. We made two versions, one based on monetary values at the time of each specific publication and another in which we adjusted all costs to take into account inflation.
Up to this point, our team has taken all the data we've collected about the Star Wars movies and their performance at the box office and converted them into data visualizations. While we loved playing in the Star Wars test environment that way, we also know that some people prefer the data to be simpler and to the point. For that reason, we included all the information that our team collected in the two graphs you can see below, which present the data of each film in a simple way. This first graphic only covers the initial release of each film.
For each of those 11 movies, we found data related to critical scores, ticket prices, box office performance, and even technical details, such as the length of each film. We also take the gross box office figure for each film and divide it by the average ticket price to get an estimate of the number of people who saw each film in theaters at the time of its initial release. We also include combined averages and totals for all categories of data. Of course, the initial releases aren't the only times these movies have been in theaters.
To take into account the money obtained with the different relaunches, we also developed the graph above, which includes the same data, but represents each time a Star Wars movie was released or re-released in the US. Box Office Mojo: number of domestic releases and box office performances of each film Office of Labor Statistics - CPI inflation calculator used to calculate inflation in IMDB - film scores, release times, release dates National Association of Theater Owners - Average cost of a movie ticket per year Rotten Tomatoes - ratings from critics and the public By submitting this form, you agree to receive emails from FinanceBuzz and Politics and the privacy conditions. FinanceBuzz has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. FinanceBuzz and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers.
Since the first film was released in 1977, the longest period without a theatrical release of Star Wars was 12 years, from 1985 to 1997. The world of Star Trek, like Star Wars, includes a series of television series, animated series and a ton of movies, not to mention a myriad of products. Now that Star Wars is owned by itself, Disney will continue to develop marketing and integrate the brand and universe into its resorts, shopping malls and theme parks. Star Wars helped Fox go from being a near-bankrupt production company to a thriving media conglomerate. In 2002, Lucasfilm sponsored the first annual edition of the official Star Wars fan film awards, which officially recognized filmmakers and the genre.
Unlike other film franchises, which publish promotional items and action figures after the film's release, the directors of Star Wars increased the expectation for blockbuster production by publishing novels and comics before their release. Star Wars radically changed the aesthetics and narratives of Hollywood movies, changing the focus of movies made in Hollywood from deep and meaningful stories based on dramatic conflicts, themes and irony to major blockbusters full of special effects, in addition to fundamentally changing the Hollywood film industry. In short, Disney offers Star Wars even more opportunities to market T-shirts featuring Mickey Mouse as a Jedi, for example, and new cross-content. Star Wars already has a great universe, with opportunities across the narrative for new stories.
Star Wars promotion nights at minor league sporting events usually include teams wearing uniform designs inspired by Star Wars. The first Star Wars movie spawned a series of prequels, sequels, independent films, animated films, television series and products. The city of about 2000 people has several Star Trek-themed attractions, although the name of the city had nothing to do with the franchise. .
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