Star Wars: The Phantom Menace Opens, May 19, 1999

Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace opened in American theaters on Wednesday, May 19, 1999, almost 16 years after Return of the Jedi. George Lucas wrote and directed the film, the first chapter of a new prequel trilogy about the young Anakin Skywalker. It earned about $924 million worldwide in its first run, the most of any movie released in 1999.

Opening Day: Midnight Shows and Long Lines

The first screenings began at 12:01 a.m. on May 19 in about 2,010 theaters across the United States and Canada, and roughly 960 more theaters started showing it later that day. Some fans had been standing in lines outside cinemas for more than a month before tickets even went on sale.

The opening also spilled into offices. The outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas estimated that 2.2 million full-time workers skipped work to see the film, costing employers about $293 million in lost productivity. A Wednesday release meant many fans had to choose between a regular workday and the first showing; the day of the week tool confirms how the date fell.

Why Fans Waited 16 Years

The original trilogy ended with Return of the Jedi in 1983. The new prequel trilogy went back decades earlier in the story to show how Anakin Skywalker, the father of Luke, would become Darth Vader. Episode I begins when Anakin is nine years old.

In the plot, Jedi Knight Qui-Gon Jinn and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi rescue Queen Amidala during an invasion of her planet, Naboo. Stranded on the desert world of Tatooine, they meet Anakin, a slave boy who is unusually strong in the Force. He wins his freedom in a podrace and leaves home to train as a Jedi, while the heroes return to Naboo to face the invasion and a Sith warrior, Darth Maul.

The cast paired established actors with newcomers. Liam Neeson played Qui-Gon, Ewan McGregor played the young Obi-Wan, Natalie Portman played Amidala and Jake Lloyd played Anakin. Ian McDiarmid returned as Palpatine, Ahmed Best played the computer-generated Jar Jar Binks, and Ray Park played Darth Maul, with Peter Serafinowicz providing the voice.

The Trailer That Sold Movie Tickets

Excitement built months ahead. The first teaser trailer arrived on November 17, 1998, attached to the movie Meet Joe Black. Media outlets reported that some fans paid full admission to that film just to see the Star Wars preview on a big screen.

A second trailer debuted on March 12, 1999, and was downloaded more than a million times in its first 24 hours, an early sign of how studios could use the web to promote a film.

Box Office Records and Results

The Phantom Menace took in more than $28 million on its opening day. Its three-day weekend gross of $64.8 million was the second-highest on record at the time, behind The Lost World: Jurassic Park, and its five-day total of $105.7 million set a record for a Wednesday opening.

Measure	Figure
Opening weekend, US and Canada	$64.8 million
Five-day opening	$105.7 million
Worldwide gross, original run	About $924 million
US and Canada gross, all releases	$487.6 million
Worldwide gross, all releases	$1.047 billion

When its first run ended, the film ranked as the second-highest-grossing movie worldwide up to that point and the highest-grossing Star Wars film without adjusting for inflation. A 3D re-release on February 10, 2012, pushed its worldwide total past $1 billion. That re-release date appears on the 2012 calendar.

Effects, Digital Screens and the Jar Jar Debate

Lucas used the film to push movie technology. About 1,950 shots contained visual effects, and Jar Jar Binks was a fully digital character sharing scenes with live actors. Lucas also arranged for the film to play on four digital projectors, two in New York and two in Los Angeles, starting June 18, 1999, an early public test of digital cinema.

Reviews were mixed. Critics generally praised the visual effects and action sequences, while criticism focused on the heavy exposition and several of the characters. Jar Jar became the lightning rod. Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times called him “a major miscue, a comic-relief character who’s frankly not funny.”

The film earned three Academy Award nominations, for visual effects, sound and sound effects editing, and lost all three to The Matrix. It also drew seven nominations at the Golden Raspberry Awards, where Ahmed Best won worst supporting actor.

The Phantom Menace’s Place in Star Wars History

Episode I opened a trilogy that continued with Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, which together told the story of Anakin’s fall. Its commercial performance answered the biggest question studios had in 1999: whether a 16-year gap had cooled interest in Star Wars. A first-run gross of about $924 million showed that it had not.

The 2012 re-release gave the film a second life in theaters, converted to 3D, and lifted its lifetime total to $1.047 billion according to Box Office Mojo. For a look at everything else that happened that spring, from the Kosovo air war to the Dow’s first close above 10,000, see the 1999 calendar.