Next stop, "Titanic." The big boat (which, if you'll recall, was supposed to sink at the box office) holds the all-time U.S.-Canadian box office record at $600 million, and tallies like that are built on repeat business. Sure, the screaming teenies loved Leo. But when it comes to counting the ways, the love of a bunch of grown men (granted, men with sizable inner children) for Obi-Wan and that horned guy with the really long light saber may prove a truly irresistible Force. The betting here is that those hearts will go on -- and on and on.
'Star Wars' No Phantom at the Box Office
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NEW YORK: Score one for the dinosaurs -- but just one. With the preliminary weekend numbers in, "The Phantom Menace" failed to overtake the Friday-to-Sunday record of $72.2 million set by "The Lost World" during the Memorial Day weekend of 1997, pulling in only $61.8 million. But throw in two days of "wookie hooky" (including Wednesday's record $28.5 million take) and the five-day force was with Lucas, not Spielberg. The winning tally: $102.7 million, edging the "Lost World" haul of $98.8 million. Disappointing? Maybe a little. Fox execs hastened to point out that this wasn't a holiday weekend, no matter how many diehards treated it like one. And indeed, the unprecedented hype surrounding Episode I -- not to mention Lucas's pickiness about which theaters were technically sophisticated enough to display his wares -- may have held down attendance just a little bit. But let's not quibble: Nine figures in five days is nothing for Fox bigwigs to cry in their Evian over.