Divisive Star Wars movie reclaims historic box office ranking spot 

One of the most divisive Star Wars movies in the franchise’s history has just become one of the highest-grossing films of all time… again.

The year was 1999. It had been 16 years since the world last visited the galaxy far, far away, but George Lucas and co. returned to tell the one story everyone wanted told: the origin of Darth Vader, and how Obi-Wan Kenobi lost his apprentice to the Dark Side.

There’s an argument to be made that The Phantom Menace wasn’t just the most anticipated Star Wars project ever. It was — at that time, perhaps before Marvel movies — the biggest pop culture event in history.

And then… it hit cinemas, and the reception wasn’t entirely positive. Even today, its critic and audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes are united: 52%, definitively ‘rotten’ but echoing the sharp divide decades later.

Yet, for all of their well-documented and debated flaws, affection for the prequels may be at an all-time high; after all, has there ever been a better lightsaber fight than Duel of the Fates, and do you still quote, “Now this is podracing!” on a daily basis?

Episode I returned to cinemas this past weekend to mark the movie’s 25th anniversary — and its re-release’s $15 million worldwide haul gave the film a huge box office boost, placing it firmly in the top 50 highest-grossing movies of all time with a total gross of $1.041 billion. It originally lost its spot, thanks to the likes of Alice in Wonderland and Zootopia exceeding $1 billion, but it’s back in the mix.

It was second on the domestic chart, falling behind The Fall Guy with $28.5 million but beating Challengers ($7.6m), Tarot ($6.5m), and Godzilla x Kong ($4.56m).

“Funny that not too long ago — 25 years to be exact — STAR WARS: THE PHANTOM MENACE was met with mediocre (to terrible) reviews… and this weekend it saw a re-release score $8M and land #2 at the domestic box office. Not many films (or series) could pull that off. Much power this franchise still has,” one user observed.

However, Phantom Menace isn’t the most successful Star Wars movie — that title goes to The Force Awakens with a whopping $2.064 billion, followed by The Last Jedi, The Rise of Skywalker, and Rogue One with $1.3bn, $1.07bn, and $1.05bn respectively.

For more, you can check out our breakdown of the Star Wars timeline, our ranking of the best Star Wars characters, and why it’s time for a Star Wars horror movie.