Heard from someone who knew someone that Darth Maul was actually a Jedi knight ....trained by The council member : Mace Windu !!!!!!! the reason being that windu owns the similar double edge lightsaber as the own maul posesses !!!!!!!

5/23/99: The Star Wars prequel grossed an estimated $102.7 million in its first five days. That's a record, beating the dinosaur sequel The Lost World: Jurassic Park which in 1997 took six days to pass the $100 million barrier. However the $61.8 million earned over the three day weekend wasn't a record. Lost World earned $72.1 million. But that was over a Memorial Day holiday weekend. Therefore Phantom was 2nd in the all time highest three day gross statistics, although still 1st in the three day non-holiday gross statistics.

Tom Sherak, distribution head for 20th Century Fox, told the Associated Press, that last Wednesday opening had been chosen to accommodate hard-core Star Wars fans. "If we had wanted to set the record we could have released the picture next week. This wasn't about records. This picture would have set any early record it wanted to set. It was never planned like that."

For the record, other records Phantom Menace did set:
Highest Wednesday Opening: $28,542,349 (Independence Day earned $17,406,144)
Highest Opening Day All-Time: $28,542.349 (Lost World earned $21,605,385)
Highest Single Day Gross All-Time: $28.542.349 (Lost World earned $26,093,950)
According to Exhibitor Relations Co. estimates, after its record Wednesday opening Phantom Menace earned just $12.3 million on Thursday and $18.4 million on Friday, rose Saturday to $24.2 million, but slipped back Sunday to $19.3 million. Playing at 2,970 theaters the film averaged $20,808 per location. Buying into the notion that audiences were staying away because they thought shows were sold out, Sherak assured "There are tickets."

Exhibitor Relations Co. estimated the Top Ten for the three day weekend this way:
1.Star Wars: Episode One - The Phantom Menace, $61.8 million
2.The Mummy, $13.1 million
3.Entrapment, $5.8 million
4.The Matrix, $2.7 million
5.The Love Letter, $2.6 million
6.A Midsummer Night's Dream, $2.5 million
7.Never Been Kissed, $1.55 million
8.Black Mask, $1.5 million
8.Life, $1.5 million
10.Election, $1.4 million


5/22/99: Box office receipts are in for Thursday. Numbers are way down from $28.5 million to $12.3 million giving Episode I a two day total of $40.8 million. Not enough to eclipse Lost Worlds two day total of $45 million.

5/20/99: Box-office receipts for the frenzied first 24 hours of Star Wars: Episode I--The Phantom Menace are in. And while the film didn't exceed the vaunted $30 million barrier some analysts predicted it would, its Force-ful take of $28,542,349--as reported by the theater-business tracker Exhibitor Relations--was still more than enough to topple the single-day 1997 record set by The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Steven Spielberg's dinosaur sequel made $26.1 million on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend two years ago, its third full day of release. (George Lucas' Star Wars prequel also bested Lost World's opening day record of $21.6 million.) The Phantom Menace opened Wednesday morning at 12:01 a.m. sharp on 2,970 North American screens, taking in somewhere between $7 million and $10 million in its first presentations alone. By the time Phantom Menace careens its way through its five-day opening weekend, which ends Sunday, some analysts are predicting total receipts in the range $140 million.