Titanic vs. Star Wars

In case you were wondering how Star Wars: The Phantom Menace is doing against Titanic at the box office, here’s a graph showing their overall box office takes by week (more info). Looks like Titanic is going to beat Star Wars by a good $150 million, if not more.

Of course, with all due respect to Titanic, the comparison is apples and oranges. Titanic was playing in the springtime with hardly any competition. People (especially the “mall crowd”) went to see it week after week because there was nothing else out there to see. Star Wars, after the first couple of weekends, had to contend with Austin Powers, Big Daddy, South Park, Notting Hill, Tarzan (which took the huge kids audience away from SW), Wild Wild West, and the General’s Daughter, all of which, save South Park are, or are on their way to being, $100 million movies. Titanic’s competition? Tomorrow Never Dies…that’s it.