After reading about Return of the King breaking opening day records previously held by The Phantom Menace, one of the staff members put the numbers to the test. And you know what, we figured out that The Phantom Menace made more money per theater!

Phantom Menace opened in 2,970 theaters.

28,500,000 / 2970 = 9595.95 per theater

ROTK opened in 3,650 theaters.

34,100,000 / 3650 = 9342.46 per theater

And before someone mentions the running time, also note that ROTK had a lot more midnight showings (and thus more show times) than TPM, too.

So technically, we still hold the record, from a certain point of view. I'm not sure if anyone keeps track of that particular stat, but hey, we've got to hold on to something until EP3 comes out.

This is why they call us "geeks", folks. :)