Return of the Jedi (1983) 40th Anniversary wide re-release week of April 28th 2023 (1 Viewer)

[Wayne_j]

I know this is covered in the Star Wars saga thread, but I hadn't heard this wide theatrical release was coming until I randomly heard about it yesterday.

I believe that this is the first time an Original Trilogy film has been in wide release since 1997. There was no 40th anniversary release of A New Hope and there was a release of The Empire Strikes back but that was just playing in the few theaters that were open during the pandemic.

I plan to see it twice in RPX in the week that it will be playing.

SWCE 2023: Star Wars: Return of the Jedi Will Be Back in Theaters for 40th Anniversary Celebration

Get all the details, and see Matt Ferguson's beautiful commemorative poster.

www.starwars.com

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I don’t know how many times I’ll be able to get out but I let all my babysitting-helping relatives know that it was a non-negotiable fact of life I was leaving the house to see this at least once!

 

[Rob W]

Don't blame your local theatre if it's not playing this weekend - this is not a wide release in the current sense of 1,000 or more screens.

 

[Jason Goodmanson]

Really like that poster for the rerelease. I think the last time I saw Jedi was during the Special Editions release. Wonder if I can convince the wife to go with, or watch the dog while I go alone.

 

[Clinton McClure]

I’d only go if it was the original, unaltered Return of the Jedi.

 

[Jeff Adkins]

I believe that this is the first time an Original Trilogy film has been in wide release since 1997. There was no 40th anniversary release of A New Hope and there was a release of The Empire Strikes back but that was just playing in the few theaters that were open during the pandemic.

I think this release of ROTJ will actually be on fewer screens than Empire played for it's 40th Anniversary in 2020. It was on 2,000 screens whereas I believe ROTJ will be on fewer than 1,000.

Empire Strikes Back Rules Box Office To Become Top Re-Release Of 2020

 

[Wayne_j]

According to Deadline the RotJ re-release ended up on 475 screens and is making 4.9 million this weekend which comes out to $10,300 per screen. That per screen last week would have been second to only Super Mario Bros. A look at tickets for the show I am attending tomorrow shows pretty good attendance.

 

[TravisR]

According to Deadline the RotJ re-release ended up on 475 screens and is making 4.9 million this weekend which comes out to $10,300 per screen. That per screen last week would have been second to only Super Mario Bros.

Since this re-release basically cost them zero, Disney just got a free few million bucks out of ROTJ. I wouldn't be surprised if a slow weekend in 2024 has The Phantom Menace for its 25h anniversary.

 

[Malcolm R]

Demand is clearly there. I don't know why they put these re-releases on such a small number of screens.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I caught it on Friday afternoon and had a blast. The DCP was based on the same master used for the 4K UHD release. I think I might have sat a little too close and know a little too much about digital mastering because I could spot how the grain was managed to give the movie a more uniform look compared to varying levels of grain seen throughout in original prints due to the number of opticals used plus the limitations of lenses and film sticks of the era - it’s the kind of thing that doesn’t stand out as much on a flat panel or home projection but becomes a little more noticeable on a giant screen. Not a complaint, just an observation.

I had never really thought about it before but all of the Harrison Ford on Endor stuff struck me as “Indiana Jones lite” this time around.

Hoping to make it back one more time before it disappears.

 

[Wayne_j]

For the first time I noticed a Dug (Sebulba's race) walking around in Jabba's palace. I wonder when they added that.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I think this release of ROTJ will actually be on fewer screens than Empire played for it's 40th Anniversary in 2020. It was on 2,000 screens whereas I believe ROTJ will be on fewer than 1,000.

Demand is clearly there. I don't know why they put these re-releases on such a small number of screens.

It is worth noting that in 2020, there were almost no new films coming out. Now, theaters are busier with new titles.

I'm not sure why the popularity of Return of the Jedi is a surprise to them, but I think Disney probably didn't expect a re-release to do as well as it did.

The obvious question now is whether they will extend this re-release beyond this week or whether they will pull it and switch all of those screens to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 on Thursday.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Demand is clearly there. I don't know why they put these re-releases on such a small number of screens.

Because the demand probably isn't so high that it warrants 1000+ screens?

If we hear of soldout screenings all weekend and people getting turned away... fair enough, but I would doubt that happened.

"ROTJ" still only mustered a per screen average slightly higher than that of a movie in its 4th weekend. It's not like it demonstrates massive demand.

For comparison, in its first weekend, "Mario" made more than $38,000 per screen - about 4 times what "ROTJ" did this weekend.

 

[TravisR]

For the first time I noticed a Dug (Sebulba's race) walking around in Jabba's palace. I wonder when they added that.

I believe it was in 2011 for the Blu-ray.

Because the demand probably isn't so high that it warrants 1000+ screens?

If we hear of soldout screenings all weekend and people getting turned away... fair enough, but I would doubt that happened.

"ROTJ" still only mustered a per screen average slightly higher than that of a movie in its 4th weekend. It's not like it demonstrates massive demand.

For comparison, in its first weekend, "Mario" made more than $38,000 per screen - about 4 times what "ROTJ" did this weekend.

Yeah but it's free money for Disney because they're barely spending to get it into theaters and the movie has long since turned a profit.

The obvious question now is whether they will extend this re-release beyond this week or whether they will pull it and switch all of those screens to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 on Thursday.

They'll want the screens for Guardians so I'd be surprised if Disney and the theaters extended Jedi's run.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

It may not have been on a ton of screens, but at least by me, it tended to wind up on good screens. Most repertory films that are programmed generally (as opposed to one-off Fathom Events) get thrown onto the worst screens in the multiplex in my experience, but I got to see Jedi on the largest non-IMAX screen in my area, with 4K laser projection and Dolby Atmos sound. It was a thrill to see it being treated as a spectacle instead of being indifferently thrown on to some tiny screen. I took my parents to see The Force Awakens in that very same auditorium back in 2015.

 

[Jake Lipson]

It may not have been on a ton of screens, but at least by me, it tended to wind up on good screens.

My Cinemark that got it has it on the XD screen (their premium screen multiplex IMAX equivalent) for two shows a day in the evening. Mario has that screen in the mornings. My Cinemark that didn't get Jedi just has Mario on the XD screen all day, and it has been there for a month.

I suspect Disney was able to get it on the premium screens because they're Disney, and also because Mario is really the only other game in town that people would consider paying a premium for right now. They were smart to put this out on a weekend when not a whole lot else is going on. I loved seeing "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret" this afternoon, but it is not something that most people would likely pay a premium for to see in the biggest auditorium. So giving those screens to Return of the Jedi made sense.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Yeah but it's free money for Disney because they're barely spending to get it into theaters and the movie has long since turned a profit.

But how do we know it played on that # of screens by Disney's choice?

Maybe theaters just weren't interested in playing it on more screens.

 

[TravisR]

But how do we know it played on that # of screens by Disney's choice?

Maybe theaters just weren't interested in playing it on more screens.

Maybe but that really doesn't have anything to do with my point. Whether Disney wanted 4,000 screens and didn't even get 500, they still made millions with almost none of the usual output of releasing a movie.

And with the benefit of hindsight, I'm sure that the theater chains would have rather had Return Of The Jedi on some more of their screens than D&D or John Wick after a month or The Covenant or certainly that George Foreman movie.

 

[Chris Will]

No theater within an hour of me is playing ROTJ. My daughter was really hoping to see it on the big screen for the first time.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Maybe but that really doesn't have anything to do with my point. Whether Disney wanted 4,000 screens and didn't even get 500, they still made millions with almost none of the usual output of releasing a movie.

And with the benefit of hindsight, I'm sure that the theater chains would have rather had Return Of The Jedi on some more of their screens than D&D or John Wick after a month or The Covenant or certainly that George Foreman movie.

Maybe. But this continues to assume that "ROTJ" would've sold more tickets if it'd been on more screens.

I don't make that assumption.