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Forbes
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
‘Star Wars' Music Dominates The Billboard Charts
As Star Wars Day renews interest in the franchise, multiple Star Wars soundtracks return to ... More Billboard's Classical charts, with one new debut among them. CANNES, France: Soldiers of the Empire stand guard at the entrance of the Festival Palace as photographers wait for US director George Lucas and his cast to come out, at the end of the screening of their film "Star Wars : Episode III - Revenge of the Sith", 15 May 2005 at the 58th edition of the Cannes International Film Festival. The seminal sci-fi saga "Star Wars" comes to a rousing close 15 May when the final episode in the six-part series gets its international premiere at the Cannes film festival. The Cannes film festival, the world's top showcase of cinema, started 11 May with a slew of veteran auteurs lining up for the prestigious Palme d'Or prize, and Hollywood muscling in to promote this year's blockbusters. AFP PHOTO GERARD JULIEN (Photo credit should read GERARD JULIEN/AFP via Getty Images) May 4 is internationally recognized as Star Wars Day, as the date is a play on the iconic phrase "May the force be with you," which is a hallmark saying of the hugely successful franchise. Each year, fans honor the vision of George Lucas vision by rewatching the many films — and, apparently, by returning to the music that accompanied them. This renewed interest is reflected on the Billboard charts this week, as several collections from the brand become hits again. As Star Wars surges in popularity again, multiple albums have returned to various charts — and there's even a new arrival. John Williams: The Star Wars Trilogy debuts on two Billboard rankings this frame. The full-length, credited to Varujan Kojian and the Utah Symphony Orchestra, opens at No. 4 on both the Classical Albums and Classical Crossover Albums charts. It's the second-highest rising new title this frame, landing just behind Gems by Josh Groban, which leads both lists. Several other projects from the Star Wars universe return to both tallies this frame. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back reappears at No. 11 on the Classical Crossover Albums list and No. 12 on the Classical Albums chart. Star Wars: A New Hope is only a few spaces further down, landing once again at No. 13 on the Classical Crossover Albums ranking and No. 16 on the all-encompassing Classical Albums roster. In total, Star Wars music fills four spaces on both Classical Albums charts this frame. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith dips slightly from where it stood last time. That film — and its accompanying score — has returned to the spotlight following a theatrical re-release in celebration of its twentieth anniversary. While fans continue to support the score, there's more competition now as Star Wars becomes a trending topic all over again. Except for the brand new arrival, all three albums are credited to both John Williams and the London Symphony Orchestra. Star Wars Episode III also credits a group called London Voices. Though Williams doesn't earn a new win on the charts with the debut, his name remains front and center in the album title, as it's his music that fuels this lasting success.
Forbes
03-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Star Wars Day Celebrates ‘Revenge Of The Sith' $900 Million Anniversary Gift
Star Wars Day – aka May the Fourth Be With You, aka May 4th -- has much to celebrate this year, not just with the 20th anniversary of the release of Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, but also an unexpected gift in the form of the movie finally crossing $902 million at the box office. CANNES, France: US director George Lucas (L) and Darth Vader wave at spectators at the end of the ... More screening of their film "Star Wars : Episode III - Revenge of the Sith", 15 May 2005 at the 58th edition of the Cannes International Film Festival. The seminal sci-fi saga "Star Wars" comes to a rousing close 15 May when the final episode in the six-part series gets its international premiere at the Cannes film festival. The Cannes film festival, the world's top showcase of cinema, started 11 May with a slew of veteran auteurs lining up for the prestigious Palme d'Or prize, and Hollywood muscling in to promote this year's blockbusters. AFP PHOTO GERARD JULIEN (Photo credit should read GERARD JULIEN/AFP via Getty Images) Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith scored $108 million when it debuted domestically on May 19th, 2005. The film went on to become the second-highest box office earner of the Star Wars franchise at the time, with about $850 million worldwide box office, just behind Episode I - The Phantom Menace's $924 million. Now, the 20th anniversary re-release of Revenge of the Sith, timed to the debut of acclaimed season 2 of Andor on Disney+ and Star Wars Day worldwide celebrations, has pushed Episode III to $900 million in total global receipts since its first release. Last weekend's $25 million rollout for Revenge of the Sith made it the surprise second-place finisher for the weekend, and it's gone on to wrack up $52 million from its brief celebrator lap at the box office. Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith is currently the sixth-highest grossing film of the whole Star Wars franchise, out of eleven total live-action theatrical releases. With more than $10 billion in worldwide theatrical sales, the Star Wars franchise also has five films with grosses north of $1 billion, including one at $2 billion as the fifth-biggest movie in box office history. As impressive as it is for an 11-film series to sit atop more than $10 billion gross, it's amazing that with five films north of a billion dollars and a couple of more in that vicinity, on the all-time charts billion dollar business has become so ubiquitous that after The Force Awakens' #5 ranking the next Star Wars film doesn't show up until #23, with The Last Jedi. The billion-dollar tier on all-time charts is 59 films long and counting. Consider that Stars Wars films average more than $1 billion per film, and the only other overarching franchise of comparable size and box office success being the Marvel Studios MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe). Here is a quick breakdown of how the Star Wars movies stack up against one another, including both domestic and worldwide grosses… After Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm and relaunch of the Star Wars series, they made nearly $5.5 billion with five movies in five years. While it's true there were controversies and fan arguments and a lot of toxic attacks against cast and crew, it's also true that – for anyone who actually lived through the past and hasn't had their memory erased – the original trilogy and the prequels experienced their own mixed reactions from critics, audiences and fans. TOKYO, JAPAN - DECEMBER 11: (L-R) Katherine Kennedy, J.J. Abrams, John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Oscar ... More Isaac and Anthony Daniels with Star Wars characters Stormtroopers, Kylo Ren, R2-D2, C-3PO, BB-8 and D-O pose for photos at the special fan event for 'Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker' the special fan event for 'Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker' at Roppongi Hills on December 11, 2019 in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo byfor Disney) The Empire Strikes Back was hardly the widely beloved, acclaimed, fan-favorite it is today (not that anybody ever admits to being among the early uncertain or mixed or outright angry voices, as usual everyone will tell you they were for it all along). Likewise, The Return of the Jedi had its share of detractors. Fans regularly have debates about which of the original films ranks at the top and which at the bottom, and such things were even more common at the time of release and the early years after release. The prequels, of course, were a nest of controversy and fan arguments, since the Internet had recently came into widespread use and those with axes to grind or complaints to lodge had a whole new and larger audience to broadcast to. My point is that Star Wars, like any franchise that has been around a long time and established a lot of legacy and mythology, and which is mostly beloved around the world by a large and diverse audience and fanbase, isn't really in much of a different place now than it ever was. Even the box office, while obviously dropping from one film to the next, remained in the billion-plus dollar range, and even adjusting for inflation the entire series has tended to play at around the same level consistently, winds up with similar ratings and reviews overall, and yet each new trilogy and generation and media era treats it like something new is going on. If we consider the Star Wars streaming series, both live-action and animated, the modern revival of the franchise has put up additional impressive numbers and released fabulous shows that continue to innovate and build a great expanded world. Starting with the final three seasons of the animated The Clone Wars series, the Disney era of Lucasfilm continued with animated series Rebels, Resistance, and The Bad Batch. In live-action, 2019 saw the arrival of The Mandalorian, followed by The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Andor, Ahsoka, The Acolyte, and this year's Skeleton Crew. All of these series were somewhere from good to very good to great. All of them, including the ones attacked by a corner of toxic fans who hurled racism, sexism, homophobia, and overall bigoted infantalized rage at the fact imaginary magic people with laser swords didn't singularly reflect these fans' own faces/skin/preferences back at them. It's amazing how often franchises are begged to take risks and try new things, and then face backlash from myopic people who hate change – and who seem not to grasp what Star Wars is about, casting their 'fandom' in question. Star Wars was always political. The Empire are Space Nazis, and the Rebels are the good guys because they fight Space Nazis. That isn't a controversial statement and it's not politicizing Star Wars, because it's a statement of fact about the inherently political nature and messaging of Star Wars. Pretending otherwise is dishonest and counter-factual. If some people didn't realize that until now, that's their fault and their problem. There are of course plenty of valid criticisms of these shows and films, don't get me wrong. I'm talking about loud controversies against specific shows that sank them – The Acolyte coming under attack from hate-speech and false extremist behavior, for example. Star Wars fans wearing costumes from the film take part in a parade as they celebrate Star Wars Day ... More in Manila on May 4, 2024. (Photo by JAM STA ROSA / AFP) (Photo by JAM STA ROSA/AFP via Getty Images) We live in a time where we get – finally, after a lifetime of waiting for generations of fans, 48 years since the original film first hit theaters in 1977 – Star Wars TV shows, filling in all of those stories we've wanted and wondered about, looking as good or better than some of the films. Again, every generation of new Star Wars films or anything else goes through the same underappreciation and debates mixed in with love and blockbuster business, and by the time the next trilogy has arrived everybody is nostalgic for the previous trilogy suddenly. The truth is, we wind up loving most of it, eventually, and still liking most of what we don't love. Very little from Star Wars has ever been outright bad, even when it has obvious flaws. If you say the Star Wars Holiday Special (which, full disclosure, I own in a nice digital transfer) and/or the Ewok spinoffs were bad or close to it, I wouldn't argue with you. But we are now living in paradise as a fans, and any notion Star Wars is in real trouble or needs major overhaul is overstated. The mistakes and problems exist, but it's not nearly as much of a mountain or danger as it's made out to be – it's comparable to the silly 'sky is falling' rhetoric every so often around Marvel. Case in point, one of the prequels just came in second place at the weekend box office 20 years after its release, and the new second season of Andor is considered by many critics and fans to be one of the best things ever made within the Star Wars universe. Star Wars is as healthy now as it was while the prequels were being released, if not more so, whatever else can be said and whatever course corrections need to be made. So happy Star Wars Day tomorrow, fellow fans, and May the Fourth Be With You, always. In honor of this year's anniversary, consider having a two-fer Tuesday with Revenge of the Sixth – there's a new four-episode season of Light & Magic on Disney+, with amazing behind-the-scenes footage from the making of the prequels, and it will change your perception of a lot about them, including a surprising amount of gorgeous detailed large-scale miniatures and sets that you probably thought were CGI.
