Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace - Release

Release

The release of the first new Star Wars film in 16 years was accompanied by a considerable amount of hype. Few film studios released films during the same week as the release of The Phantom Menace; among them were DreamWorks and Universal Studios, with the releases of The Love Letter (on May 21) and Notting Hill (on May 28), respectively. The Love Letter resulted in a box-office flop, whereas Notting Hill fared rather well and followed The Phantom Menace closely in second place. Challenger, Gray & Christmas of Chicago, a work-issues consulting firm, estimated that 2.2 million full-time employees did not appear for work to attend the film, resulting in $293 million in lost productivity. According to The Wall Street Journal, so many workers announced plans to view premiere that many companies shut down on the opening day. Queue areas formed outside cinema theaters over a month in advance of ticket sales.

More theater lines appeared when it was announced that cinemas were not allowed to sell tickets in advance until two weeks into the release. This was done out of fear that family theater-goers would be either unable to receive tickets or forced to pay higher prices. Tickets were instead to be sold on a traditional first-come-first-served basis. However, after meetings with the National Association of Theatre Owners, Lucasfilm agreed to allow advance ticket sales on May 12, 1999, provided that there be a twelve-ticket limit per customer. As a result, however, some advance tickets were sold by scalpers as high as $100 apiece, which a distribution chief called "horrible", stating it was exactly what they wanted to avoid. Daily Variety reported that theater owners received strict instructions from Lucasfilm that the film could only play in the cinema's largest auditorium for the first 8–12 weeks; no honor passes were allowed for the first eight weeks, and they were obligated to send their payments to distributor 20th Century Fox within seven days.

Despite worries about whether the film would be finished in time, two weeks before its theatrical release Lucasfilm pushed the release date up from May 21, 1999 to May 19, 1999. At the ShoWest Convention, Lucas stated that the change was to give the fans a "head start" by allowing them to view it over the week and allowing families the chance to view it on the weekends. Foreshadowing his future conversion to digital cinematography, Lucas stated that the film would be released on four digital projectors on June 18, 1999. Eleven charity premieres were staged across the United States on May 16, 1999; receipts from the Los Angeles event were donated to the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation with corporate packages available for $5,000–$25,000. Other charity premieres included the Dallas premiere for Children's Medical Center, the Aubrey Fund for Pediatric Cancer Research at the Sloan-Kettering Hospital in New York, the Big Brother/Sister Association of the Philadelphia premiere, and the Children's National Medical Center in Washington D.C. A statement said that tickets were sold at $500 apiece and that certain sections were set aside for disadvantaged children.