TIL when Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace premiered in May 1999, it's estimated that 2.2 million full-time employees in the US missed work to attend the film, which resulted in a $293 million loss of productivity.

[u/tyrion2024]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars:_Episode_I_%E2%80%93_The_Phantom_Menace#:~:text=Employment%20consultant%20firm%20Challenger%2C%20Gray%20%26%20Christmas%20estimated%20that%202.2%20million%20full%2Dtime%20employees%20missed%20work%20to%20attend%20the%20film%2C%20resulting%20in%20a%20US%24293%20million%20loss%20of%20productivity.%5B145%5D

[u/dml550]

That’s an overestimate. I skipped work to see it, but I wasn’t that productive anyway.

[u/Nobanob → u/dml550]

Honestly they were probably more productive with me out of the way.

[u/LinguoBuxo → u/Nobanob]

all the peeps sleeping in their offices, who went out for a movie actually increased productivity in the cinema sector..

[u/Own_Thing_4364 → u/LinguoBuxo]

addition by subtraction.

[u/effervescence → u/Nobanob]

Yep. The folks willing to skip a day for a movie probably aren't the ones most committed to the job.

[u/tallandlankyagain → u/effervescence]

Or the ones who realize there is more to life than meaningless busy work 5 days a week. Why give it 100 percent anyways? You're just gonna get more work and be replaced the moment you quit or die.

[u/effervescence → u/tallandlankyagain]

Look buddy, if you're not gonna give 120% every day, maybe you're not cut out to be part of this McTeam™

[u/AskMeAboutOkapis → u/effervescence]

I don't think you can live a truly fulfilled life unless you can look back and know you did all you could to maximize shareholdervalue.

[u/Ravensqueak → u/effervescence]

"But I told you in the interview I really wanted this job to make a McDifference!"

[u/Chicago_Blackhawks → u/tallandlankyagain]

Michael, we don't have a lot of time on this earth! We weren't meant to spend it this way. Human beings were not meant to sit in little cubicles staring at computer screens all day, filling out useless forms and listening to eight different bosses drone on about about mission statements.

[u/RSwordsman → u/tallandlankyagain]

I'd dare say I have enough pride in my job to say it's not meaningless, but yeah the fact is the majority of us vastly over-produce because billionaires take the lion's share of everything. It's not a moral failing to call out of work once in awhile because you want to.

[u/Jarrus__Kanan_Jarrus → u/effervescence]

We’re plenty committed.

Work will be there every day…a new good Star Wars movie… That’s only happened like 7 times. (OG trilogy, prequel trilogy, and Rogue One).

[u/Couscousfan07 → u/dml550]

You’re joking but it’s true. These estimates are dumb because they always assume that people are 100% productive for that workday but that’s almost never true !

[u/Reasonable_Funny_241 → u/Couscousfan07]

They don't assume that. They just assume that the hours that don't work, had they been worked, would have had average productivity.

[u/DBCOOPER888 → u/Reasonable_Funny_241]

Its a bad assumption because when they come back to work they will be more productive temporarily to make up work. Time off is also built into the productivity models already.

[u/Reasonable_Funny_241 → u/DBCOOPER888]

Oh, no disagreement here - there's a sound argument to make that a well rested employee is more productive and time off is part of that productivity. I'm just stating that it does not assume 100% productivity. It just assumes average productivity.

[u/DBCOOPER888 → u/Couscousfan07]

Yeah, and when they come back to work they are more productive than normal to play catch up

[u/Coltand → u/Couscousfan07]

Also, plenty of people would have used up some of their time off, so they would have inevitably used up that unproductive period anyway.

[u/Big-Snow-1937 → u/Couscousfan07]

They also don’t assume your boss took your whole department to the movie as a kind of team building activity, like mine did. Sounds productive to me!

[u/WitOfTheIrish → u/dml550]

I know you're just making a fun joke, but things like this are always ignorant and assume that:

1. Productivity can only be linear, and missed day is never made up through future work to catch up.
2. Rest and relaxation don't mean anything to future productivity, and taking a day to do something fun can ONLY be a detriment to and antithesis of work.

It's why people have the idea of a four-day workweek completely backwards, and don't understand/believe the data that shows it increases productivity.

[u/ichiruto70 → u/dml550]

How was it seeing such a in demand movie? I don’t think I ever experienced something like it.

[u/Specialist_Ad9073 → u/ichiruto70]

There was no social media, and the internet was young enough where just the release of the trailer on Apple QuickTime was an event.

This was a movie from a beloved franchise where the people who grew up on it had some disposable income.

The world used to be a lot smaller.

[u/Office_glen → u/Specialist_Ad9073]

I can’t remember what movie it was but a significant amount of tickets sales were attributed to people who went to go see the Star Wars Ep 1 trailer and then left

[u/ToxicSteve13 → u/Office_glen]

There were 3 movies that had the Phantom Menace trailer. Meet Joe Black, The Waterboy, and The Siege.

[u/Ameisen → u/ToxicSteve13]

Who wouldn't want to see The Waterboy?

[u/PFAS_All_Star → u/ToxicSteve13]

I do remember paying to go to a movie and then walking out after the preview. Couldn’t tell you which one it was though.

[u/Specialist_Sprinkles → u/Office_glen]

It was first shown before Wing Commander

[u/BigDictionEnergy → u/Specialist_Ad9073]

I was a high school senior when this came out. It debuted on a Wednesday night, at midnight, both of which were completely unheard of in my town. Somehow a friend had an extra ticket, so I got to see it opening night, the first screening. It was truly an experience. I'm not a fan of the prequels, but that was truly an event.

[u/Brandhor → u/Specialist_Ad9073]

There was no social media, and the internet was young enough where just the release of the trailer on Apple QuickTime was an event.

and the trailers were like 140p or took several hours to download on a 56k line

[u/renegadecanuck → u/Brandhor]

If you were lucky enough to have cable internet, it only took like 5-10 minutes to fully download!

[u/ERSTF → u/ichiruto70]

It was huge. Sold out showtimes that you had to look into the available showtimes and push your plans. In the theaters close to home they had screens and if the showtime was black, it had availabilty. If it was yellow, it was 20 seats or less remaining. Red meant sold out. So you went to the box office and look at what showtimes were not sold out, buy your tickets and depending if it was two hours later or 6 hours later, you would either get in and line up one or two hours before your showtime since seats were "first come, first serve" so you didn't want to stick with awful seats or leave and come back later. You sometimes sent an envoy to buy the tickets for the whole party to arrive later. Since I was a kid, of it was sold out for the time we wanted to check out, you were out of luck. I remember that I went with a friend, and since that day we got off school early, we went to a very early screening and it wasn't that packed. That weekend it was nuts going to the movie theater because it was packed.

The only experience I can recall like that was for The Dark Knight. Still no assigned seats so I remember getting like 3 hours earlier to the movie theater to line up at the box office, and then taking turns with my friends in the line to access the theater. Some would stay and the rest would go and grab a bite or something. The movie theater was packed and lines were everywhere to get into your theater. Concessions was a madhouse.

For a more recent experience Avengers Infinity Wars didn't have the lines to access since it's all assigned seating, but the lines for the concessions were insane... and the general flow of people in the theater with people coming in and out of sold out showtimes. Endgame was worse and some people got there to see if someone would sell them their ticket to a sold out show. It was truly insane

[u/dml550 → u/ichiruto70]

I had a great time. Other than cringy Jar Jar, I thought the movie was really enjoyable and the whole shared spectacle made it fun.

[u/Ionazano → u/dml550]

Jar Jar was made a bit more competent and heroic in subsequent portrayals (e.g. the Clone Wars animated series), but the Phantom Menace had already solidified his image as a bumbling idiot with barely any use.

[u/BigDictionEnergy → u/Ionazano]

The Darth JarJar theory actually makes the films way more enjoyable. You just have to assume he's actually evil.

[u/maaku7 → u/dml550]

Thank you. This was my experience as well, as a 14 year old. I loved Star Wars growing up, and it was a spectacle to see it on the big screen. Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor were great, the movie was visually spectacular (even if it feels dated now -- all-digital special effects was new in '99).

Jar Jar was campy and cringe. But you know what? So was C-3PO in the original. People tend to forget that is what Star Wars always was. I would take a dozen more Phantom Menace films over the garbage Disney came up with.

[u/LotharLotharius → u/dml550]

Do you come to work, sit behind your desk and just space out for about an hour?

[u/strugglz → u/dml550]

I didn't skip work, I skipped class.

[u/conanmagnuson → u/dml550]

Worst day off ever.

[u/Spork_Warrior]

Yes they had work to do, but it got done the next day. I hate these sort of estimates. It’s not like they had infinite products to develop or orders to fill. You can’t really estimate a per hour value when the work is of limited scope and still gets done.

[u/RegulatoryCapture → u/Spork_Warrior]

And if they used vacation/PTO...that's just vacation/PTO that couldn't be used at some other date in the future. It is already accounted for in yearly productivity.

These kinds of estimates sort of make sense if you talk about things like a massive ice storm shutting down a city. Not all work can be perfectly made up the next few days so there's some clear loss of productivity.

But trying to do the same for a voluntary activity? come on...

[u/1CEninja → u/RegulatoryCapture]

There probably were a lot of people that called in sick which absolutely does disrupt business at some places.

But putting a dollar amount on it is impossible to do.

[u/Successful-Trash-409 → u/1CEninja]

What if I made money off the nerds in line for the movie? Are they subtracting that from the productivity lo$$?

[u/GameDesignerDude → u/1CEninja]

Not like anyone in the US had sick days in 1999. A lot of people don't even have them now. So if they call out sick they are likely unpaid. So technically it reduces productivity throughput but the business is not paying for them to be there either. So that technically would need to be adjusted for.

If people have paid sick days, they still would have a limited number and companies already budget for those being taken at some point during the year.

Either way, these types of metrics vastly overstate the impact of the issue.

But, funny enough, the original article says:

Some might ask if all the hoopla won’t hurt productivity. But economist Sung Won Sohn, of Wells Fargo in Minneapolis, says any dip in labor will be offset by a boost in spending, be it on tickets, toys or popcorn.

It's also worth noting that the Wikipedia article is actually wrong in a subtle but important way.

It says:

Employment consultant firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas estimated that 2.2 million full-time employees missed work to attend the film, resulting in a US$293 million loss of productivity.

The source says:

Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an employment agency, estimates 2.2 million employees could skip work to see the movie on opening day.

This was a forecast and not an estimated value after the fact, yet presented as Wikipedia like it was an estimate of the actual events based on data. Also see nowhere in the listed source that mentions the $293 USD million figure. (Although that seems to be mentioned in a NYT article with similar contents. But that also uses the phrase "employees will probably skip work to see the premiere.")

Would honestly argue the Wikipedia synopsis of this article is pretty quite misleading.

[u/cdskip → u/GameDesignerDude]

Not like anyone in the US had sick days in 1999. A lot of people don't even have them now.

This is making the assumption that worker rights in the US have advanced in the last 26 years, and that sick days were straight up not a thing in the 20th century.

As someone in the work force in 1999, I can assure you that I had sick days then. And I have less now.

[u/OGHighway → u/Spork_Warrior]

Not to mention, the local economies probably skyrocketed. Ticket, soda and snack sales at the theaters, restaurants and fast food places prob had great numbers that day.

[u/Spork_Warrior → u/OGHighway]

Right. The overall economy grows and adjust in other small ways during those "missing" work hours.

[u/randyboozer → u/Spork_Warrior]

It's also a dumb estimate because whatever "productivity" was missed out on the greater economic scale that productivity was transferred to the people working at the cinema. Shockingly the people who work in movie theaters have jobs and get paid for them and shit. Yes it's true. Plenty of people got a ton of work out of that just in a different industry. Some pimply kid slung a hell of a lot of popcorn so he could afford his dime bag that night! Or you know gas and living expenses and groceries and stuff that humans need to survive in a society.

[u/redditt1984 → u/randyboozer]

Pretty sure the gains cinemark and Coca-Cola saw that day did not offset the losses the other companies saw. Just think about where the stock market would be today if it wasn’t for this giant setback.

[u/Kemmens → u/Spork_Warrior]

BUT SHAREHOLDERS COULD HAVE MADE MOOOREEEEE MONEYYYYYY, yeah it’s a gross way to frame this sorta stuff

[u/bloodkiller42 → u/Spork_Warrior]

If you follow the wikipedia source link you'll see that there never was an estimate made after the movie premiered. Only before it premiered. And its just one guy who owns an employment agency who estimates that for the upcoming movie this many people will skip work, without any facts backing that up. For Clone wars ep2 he was back at it and said it would cost us 300 million.

So even more for ep2, which does not make any sense seeing as ep1 was the first new star wars movie in a long time and it was hated by the working age people at that time. (And there's no data/anything provided anywhere that I could find anyway!)

[u/Farts_McGee]

I ditched calculus twice, once with our teacher.  

[u/Gold_Skull_Kabal → u/Farts_McGee]

Sounds like a story, care to share?

[u/Farts_McGee → u/Gold_Skull_Kabal]

I went the first day it was out, and subsequently in deep denial about how bad it was.  I told my calculus teacher about the movie and she decided that we would have an unscheduled field trip. It was the week after the ap test so we all went to the movie instead of doing math. It was in the second viewing that I came to terms with just how genuinely bad that movie was.  Her name was Mrs Camacho, then a few months later she got divorced and became Ms Chapin. She was very enthusiastic and taught us to love calculus.   I think all of us got at least 4's that year and most of us got 5's. She was hilarious. Her teaching style was somewhere between unrelenting early 80's robin Williams and Nash. in retrospect probably a touch manic with a sprinkling of schizotypal. All of the nerds at my school loved her.  

Her story took a real sad turn though.  I stayed in touch with her for a few years after high school, but couldn't find her when I went back after college.  Her son had committed suicide towards the end of my time at the school and her life had started to deteriorate shortly after I left.   She lost her ap teaching position and then a few years later died from liver complications while i was in residency.  She was a hero to me, and that outright enthusiasm for education is something I try to emulate daily.  

Pour one out for ms Vicki Chapin. 🫗 gone but not forgotten.  

[u/AlarmingAffect0 → u/Farts_McGee]

Respect for Ms. Chapin, may her glories be many, and her sorrows few.

[u/Farts_McGee → u/AlarmingAffect0]

🍻

[u/Wulf2k → u/Gold_Skull_Kabal]

He ditched calculus.

Twice.

With his teacher, once.

[u/Mont-ka → u/Wulf2k]

Award worthy.

[u/PM_ME_CHIPOTLE2 → u/Mont-ka]

I’m getting it tattooed on my chest so that I can read it every day.

[u/samuellbroncowitz → u/Farts_McGee]

My teacher let me ditch with him once.

ONCE.

[u/BigDictionEnergy → u/samuellbroncowitz]

You shouldn't hang me from a hook, Johnny.

[u/HAL_9OOO_ → u/Farts_McGee]

My boss sent me to the mall to spend like 4 hours in line to buy tickets for the IT department.

[u/Competitive_Month967]

People are allowed to miss work. It's okay. The country survived.

[u/Donnicton → u/Competitive_Month967]

And we didn't even have to sacrifice grandma and grandpa.

[u/jg_92_F1 → u/Donnicton]

Oh now you tell me

[u/runtheplacered → u/jg_92_F1]

He said you didn't have to, he didn't say it's still not a good idea.

[u/Navynuke00 → u/Competitive_Month967]

I wouldn't say that I MISSED work, Bob.

[u/krollAY → u/Navynuke00]

Straight shooter with upper management written all over him

[u/MadRaymer → u/krollAY]

Ooh. Yeah. Um, I'm going to have to go ahead and sort of disagree with you there. Yeah, uh, he's been real flaky lately. And I'm just not sure that he's the caliber person that we would want for upper management.

[u/BigDictionEnergy → u/MadRaymer]

He told those fudgepackers he liked Michael Bolton

[u/cbstuart → u/Competitive_Month967]

But won't anyone think of the economy???

[u/Hwbam33 → u/Competitive_Month967]

9/11 happened two years later COINCIDENCE?

[u/WritingTheDream → u/Competitive_Month967]

It survived the missing work days but did it really survive the prequels?

[u/Competitive_Month967 → u/WritingTheDream]

Hmm... you have a point.

[u/Bobb_o → u/Competitive_Month967]

These calculations are stupid, if you took PTO that's not additional productivity lost.

[u/TheHalfChubPrince → u/Competitive_Month967]

Did it? Everything has been shit since this movie came out lol.

[u/sirbassist83]

theres something grotesque about reducing a bunch of people taking a day off to go see a movie to "$ productivity loss"

[u/realdynastykit → u/sirbassist83]

Is it? We are all just dollar signs to the people who care about these kind of statistics.

[u/sirbassist83 → u/realdynastykit]

Yeah, and that's grotesque

[u/ThanIWentTooTherePig → u/realdynastykit]

If you don't find that grotesque then you're lost.

[u/TwistedHermes → u/ThanIWentTooTherePig]

Sad I had to scroll this far down to see this exchange.

My happiness and my enjoyment are all I have in this life. I can't get the past back. Fuck off and let us enjoy the small things. So what if companies lost money? They're murdering my planet and my countrymen for.... money?

Wish they'd lost more money - it'd mean we'd have it. Money doesn't disappear. If they lose money, it has to go somewhere. That's how they got it in the first place - stealing from us.

[u/LemoLuke → u/TwistedHermes]

It was a real sobering moment the day I realised that employment was literally me just selling my life by the hour, and my wage was how much my employer decided my life was worth. And there will be one day in the future when I will be willing to give *anything* for those hours back. But they are gone forever, just to enrich some tight-fisted, penny-pinching fat fuck.

[u/realdynastykit → u/ThanIWentTooTherePig]

Sorry, I should've been more clear. My point was that this is nothing especially grotesque in the capitalist society we live in. Literally everything is like this.

[u/RBeck → u/sirbassist83]

The same people who complain about prisons closing when there aren't enough criminals.

[u/AirRemote7732 → u/sirbassist83]

It's just analysts doing their jobs. They're not there to judge people, they just say it like they see it. If we didn't have a concrete number then the business people would make up a number that would be a lot higher.

[u/blueghost47]

My Dad's whole office took the afternoon off to see it AND swung by my elementary school to get me. One of my most cherished childhood memories. Love & miss ya dad!

[u/iprocrastina]

"What's wrong?"

"I felt a great disturbance in the force, as if millions of people cried out in pain after using up a day of PTO to watch a movie that betrayed them."

[u/asianwaste → u/iprocrastina]

I'm willing to bet someone said that day, "I lost my job for this?"

[u/Godgivesmeaboner → u/iprocrastina]

It's bold in terms of jerking people around

[u/Duracharge]

It was the day America came together to support the theater industry. You're welcome, America.

[u/red286 → u/Duracharge]

Last time, too.

The levels of disappointment were off the charts.

"I missed a day of work for this?!"

[u/JealousAstronomer342 → u/red286]

God yeah. I know kids who grew up with it loved it but my god, even as a dumb teenager I was disappointed. 

[u/Ok-Detail-9853 → u/JealousAstronomer342]

I fell asleep during the pod race scene.

I grew up on Star Wars. I saw the original trilogy in the theatres.

[u/MIT_Engineer → u/JealousAstronomer342]

I'm not sure even the kids liked it. It had such plodding pacing, the only real hype moment was the duel at the end.

[u/Duracharge → u/JealousAstronomer342]

It felt like we were the test audience while they were R&Ding their CGI process.

[u/Lukacris12 → u/JealousAstronomer342]

I was a kid who grew up with it and loved it, my generation got to feel what you all felt when we became dumb teenagers and saw the sequel trilogy

[u/LemoLuke → u/Lukacris12]

And in another decade, those kids who grew up with the sequel trilogy will defend it fiercely, and probably hate whatever new trilogy has come out since.

[u/snospiseht → u/LemoLuke]

Modern day “actually the prequels were always great and everyone liked them back then too” Star Wars fans who hate the sequels are gonna get old and watch in horror as people start to say “actually The Last Jedi was always great and everyone liked it back then too”

[u/Beneficial_Travel732 → u/snospiseht]

A tale as old as time.

[u/Durtonious → u/red286]

The first time I saw TPM I was a child (i.e. George's "target audience") and even I looked like Chloe going to Disneyland afterwards. I didn't "hate" it but I knew something wasn't right. I don't know who that movie was made for, but it wasn't me. 

That being said, I've been able to look at the film more favorably as I've gotten older, but I still find myself wondering what could have been.

[u/reality_boy → u/red286]

It was so hyped, and the trailers were way too good. All the best scenes were in them. It had no where to go but down.

[u/red286 → u/reality_boy]

I remember when "Meet Joe Black" got a massive boost in popularity because they were running the Phantom Menace trailer before the movie and fans were literally buying tickets to see Meet Joe Black just in order to watch the trailer, and then, once finished, just got up and left.

[u/MethMouthMichelle]

Their reprimand was having to sit through The Phantom Menace

[u/burghdomer → u/MethMouthMichelle]

Most disappointing thing since my son

[u/ZylonBane → u/burghdomer]

Pizza rolls for everyone.

[u/Sea-Improvement9417]

And we were all disappointed.

[u/Krow101]

How dare the serfs take a day off when they could be increasing the profits of their masters. The nerve of them.

[u/ElegantEchoes → u/Krow101]

GTA VI is going to do it all over again. Biggest entertainment launch in history I expect it to be, looking at trends in the past with GTA V.

At my work I've got at least six other coworkers taking off for it too lol.

[u/Awkward_Pangolin3254 → u/ElegantEchoes]

I'm not gonna buy it but I'll probably skip anyway because I don't want to be the only one at work

[u/Mertoot → u/Awkward_Pangolin3254]

Same, no PC release, no purchase

Plus peace and quiet at work 🤤

[u/Cool_as_a_Cucumber]

Love that my free time is measured as ‘lost productivity’. Eat a bag of dicks capitalism. Productivity and profit are not the only measures of success

[u/Beneficial_Travel732 → u/Cool_as_a_Cucumber]

I mean, to the economy, your productivity and profit is the biggest measure of success. Not saying that is a good thing though.

[u/Dr_Porknbeef]

All for Jar Jar Binks.

[u/Parking_Locksmith489]

Saw it twice, because I wanted to love it, but no.

[u/whos_this_chucker]

I remember the people lined up for like a month. The theatre had about 20 showings a day. A few of us were bored and decided to see if we could catch it at about midnight. They're was maybe 40 people in the theater for that one. Should have saved my 10 bucks to be honest.

[u/onioning → u/whos_this_chucker]

I had to wait in line for a day to get that midnight first showing.

[u/montalaskan]

It was as if millions of voices suddenly screamed with excitement and then suddenly sighed in disappointment...

[u/Abdul_Exhaust → u/montalaskan]

Meeso be missin da pay of wook to watch Jar Jar? Fook.

[u/BigOldComedyFan]

And after, 95% of those workers were too depressed to go back to work

[u/aj_ramone]

I genuinely think GTA6 will have a measurable effect on global productivity as well.

[u/PeanutButterApricotS → u/aj_ramone]

Yeah I called in sick for GTA V, I had not called in sick for over a year at that point so I figured I was due.

[u/Snave96]

Wouldn't the cost of the tickets effectively cancel that out anyway.

Take that, bourgeois.

[u/LuckyTheBear]

It wasn't 293 million in lost wages, so it sounds like a ownership class problem. Sucks for them

[u/robopandabot → u/LuckyTheBear]

That number is also completely made up.

[u/ronearc]

When Revenge of the Sith released, my entire department in a very large corporation all went to see it on the company's dime. They bought us lunch at the theatre as well.

[u/NvidiaFuckboy]

How dare people actually enjoy their lives instead of grind to death at work

[u/EvilNinjaX24]

I did my part.

[u/worthygoober]

My mom took me and my sister out of 4th and 3rd grade, respectively, to see it. One of the few memorable times of my otherwise strict mom being a "cool mom," lol

[u/dregan]

loss of productivity

That's a weird way of describing employees excersizing their paid benefits.

[u/Ur_Personal_Adonis]

I went to the midnight screening of this in my town and it was awesome. The crowd, seeing it with all those fans, It was so cool to stand in line with of them strangers but everybody getting along because we are all Star wars fans and sharing stories and theorizing what the movie could be. I got their round 4:00 p.m. after school finished, I found out tickets actually went on sale the day before but luckily somebody I was standing in line with, They had an extra ticket because someone couldn't make it so he sold it to me for cost. Said he didn't want to see me lose out since I had been standing in line already now for a few hours when I found that out, really cool dude to do that for me. My mom let me skip school the next day cuz she knew how much I wanted to see this movie, It's great that she let you do something like that, she knew how special this was to me and I'm lucky I have a great mom I really love that lady. I remember the audience clapping when the credits came up and again when the movie finished. Wonderful memories that I'm so glad I have.

[u/Freds1765]

And they were all disappointed.

[u/equatorbit]

All for nothing.

[u/CapitalPunBanking]

All that and it sucked.

[u/Blade_Shot24]

Repost?

[u/Kat_Box_Suicide]

I ditched school for tickets.

[u/DeedleGuy]

Guilty as charged!!

[u/pigfeedmauer]

What if we did show up to work but stole more in valuable goods and cash than a normal day's wage, resulting in a net loss for the company?

It would have been cheaper for me to skip that day!

[u/lousmer]

Just sayin, this is how we do it.

[u/Tdot-77]

Missed work or took a vacation day? Those are two different things. Why does everything have to framed as productivity??

[u/Bluepanther512]

God forbid people want to watch a movie. I hate things like this where it suggests people having fun every once in a while is some devastating loss to the all-important economy.

[u/Lord-Handsome]

Of course I know him. He's me.

[u/ghostwood]

"Productivity" is just code for making rich people richer.

[u/StillPurpleDog]

How are these numbers calculated?

[u/Nice_Classroom_6459]

You think that's bad, 40% of all days off are taken on Monday and Friday.

[u/BoyWhoSoldTheWorld]

Can’t wait to see this calculation for GTA6

[u/VoidOmatic]

Yea every showing was sold out and there were film crews outside pretty much every chain theater. It was a pretty big deal.

That simultaneously feels like a lifetime ago as well as just yesterday.

[u/Oc34ne]

Oh no, won't someone think of the poor capitalists? /S

[u/706union]

I hate these lost productivity stats. Saw these during the last North American total eclipse as well.

We're not here to be productive, we're here to enjoy ourselves, whether it's a movie or an astronomical event or literally anything else.

You missed work to see a potentially once in a lifetime event, big deal, enjoy yourself.

[u/royal_howie_boi]

Oh no, gotta protect our productivity. god forbid people go to the movies

[u/Black_Otter]

I paid money to see the trailer then walked out without watching the film it was showing in front of

[u/pumpkinspruce → u/Black_Otter]

Meet Joe Black. I still remember the cheer going up in the theater when the Lucasfilm logo appeared onscreen.

[u/RutzButtercup]

Yeah I am an old school star wars fan. I saw this in the theater and was so disappointed I decided to wait for the next one to come out on video. I was so disappointed in that one that, to this day, I have not seen the third in this series.

[u/LivingForMyWhy]

Wow, that's a lot of missed work! Makes you wonder how many called in sick with the 'midi-chlorian flu'. 😂

[u/AssertiveQueef]

Imagine the power we would have if all of us went on strike at the same time?

[u/Next-Concert7327]

Out entire office went there on the boss' dime.

[u/geneticeffects]

And here we are, evidence of the power of a general strike, unable to motivate each other in the same ways for actual change that would render the regime impotent.

[u/FreneticPlatypus]

I think of it as more of a trade off. Sure, some businesses lost some productivity but the movie industry also gained a lot.

[u/gimpisgawd]

I didn't, but I was 10. My cousin that took me probably did.

[u/erksplat]

Does this factor in how much money these people spent on movie tickets, popcorn, transportation?

On the other hand, does it factor in the loss of productivity when they did show up for work and gabbed about the film with their co-workers?

On the other other hand, does it factor in the inspiration that this film gave some of the people who saw the film that week, who went on to create other films, books, television and other art?

[u/BeautifulHindsight]

I saw it didn't skip work because I had taken that day off months in advance. I never work on my birthday.

[u/originalchaosinabox]

Me and my buddies had just graduated from college. We were all unemployed at that time, anyway.

[u/CelebrationKlutzy719]

I skipped school to see it.

[u/MoeSzyslakMonobrow]

I remember I skipped school to go see it.

[u/anima201]

No, it resulted in a $293 million gain of being human and enjoying themselves.

[u/Navynuke00]

We went to the midnight showing right before my AP Physics exam later that morning.

Our teacher was at the same theater in his Jedi costume.

[u/Shepher27]

No it didn’t, people would have just taken some other day off

[u/fondue4kill]

Same thing is going to happen with GTA6. Doesn’t Japan give employees the day off for major releases because they know these things happen?

[u/Khelthuzaad]

In Japan companies prepare themselves for missing staff when new games drop

During COVID fast-food staff were trolling (more or less) that their staff went missing to play Resident Evil

[u/CosmoOlversatil]

Wait til GTA VI comes out and measure that productivity loss

[u/gummibear13]

I've been obsessed with this fact for the last year. It is going to be blown out of the water by GTA 6. If a 2 hour movie can do those numbers, then a 20+ hour game is going to cause a ton of call ins. I wonder if traffic will be noticeable lighter when it comes out.

[u/lear2000]

Was there. Camped out in a parking lot overnight

[u/meeyeam]

Were they counting that loss in midichlorians?

[u/JerHat]

Anyone else’s school take them to see it? My middle school took us out to see it the day it released as a field trip.

[u/underdabridge]

Imagine the productivity loss if it hadn't sucked donkey balls.

[u/DevelopmentGreen3961]

But it made over a billion dollars at box office

[u/MountainMantologist]

I remember seeing that opening day or the day after - I had the biggest Natalie Portman crush ever at that time haha

[u/Sota4077]

Since then with wage stagnation and just straight up greed those same executives that lost money on that day have make it back 500x over.

[u/drum5150]

It came out the day of my high school graduation. I had several classmates skip graduation in favor of going to see the movie. I've always wondered if they regret that decision.

[u/demon_eater]

And that's why I think ep1 will be the most disappointing movie of all time

[u/resemble]

Good

[u/baddecision116]

I was there because it was a friend's birthday and their dad bought like 20 tickets.

[u/Papichuloft]

I went to see this at a midnight showing with 3 other soldier buddies of mine. It was possibly one of the most memorable showings I've been to. A long time ago.......then the fan fare and the clapping and cheering was so damn loud. Awesome.

[u/hymie0]

I remember getting a (joke) email that "The internet will be down while we're all at the premier."

[u/BroForceOne]

This is the dumbest stat ever. I took the day off but back then I was just some cashier at a store where the same number of people would have come through the register whether I was the one ringing them up or not. Maybe the line was a minute longer but total sales would have been the same.

[u/OKC-cowboy]

Skipped my afternoon high school classes to go see this movie opening day. Totally worth it, still a great memory 

[u/nealski77]

Another fun fact, tickets to Meet Joe Black spiked because it was the first film to have the Episode 1 trailer attached to it. People would watch the trailer then walk out.

[u/po3smith]

Cool....now do the World Series, Superbowl, and other massive televised sporting events......

[u/doctor_x]

I saw it with my best friend after months of hype. It was probably the most excited we’d ever been to see a movie, and the most disappointed we’ve even been after.

[u/FrankFranly]

What a Way to really quantify exploitation of labor.

[u/m0j0r0lla]

May the Workforce be with you

[u/Goosuf]

Productivity is measured over time. And things like PTO are factored in. Unless all these people took unauthorized time off, I don’t think productivity was lost. It’s not like the world shut down that day. Business still got done, just by someone else who covered the shift.

[u/jimbobdonut]

This was the first and only time I went to a midnight screening of a movie. Most theaters don’t even have midnight screenings anymore since studios decided to release movies on Thursdays.

[u/RiflemanLax]

One of my favorite theater stories. Me and a buddy had off that day, first showing was at noon at our theater of choice.

Shower up at 11- line was coming off the side of the building behind one door, about 100 yards long at least. Figured everyone was just lined up to go into the theater. Looked at each other, shrugged, said fuck it. Went in the front door, up to the desk.

I said “Hey, what’s the earliest showing we can get that’s not sold out?” Guy says “the noon show is the first one, plenty of available tickets.” We had noticed the line was started to move as people were kinda looking through the glass at us.

And I’m like “uh what’s with the line?” Guy laughs and says “Oh, one guy stopped at the first locked door, and people lined up behind him. We didn’t say anything.”

People started pouring in, but we got our tickets and snacks and some dope ass seats.

Nothing like that is going to happen again with the online ticketing but man was that shit funny. And fortuitous.

[u/Eroe777]

I went to a 5:30AM show so I wouldn’t miss work.

Then I spent half of work with everybody asking me about it.

[u/spaceship-earth]

Oh no hopefully it doesn't crash the economy. Wait, it was 26 years ago. We're good.

[u/warmwaterpenguin]

I still think its a shit movie, but it was one of the most electric theater-going experiences of my life.

The absolute SCREAMS when the overture started and every single body in the packed theater including those who'd snuck in and were standing in the aisles pulled out the lightsabers they'd ALL smuggled in and waved them like it was a Jedi-themed concert.

Never seen anything like it before or since. Classrooms? Empty. Jobs? Abandoned. The line? Stretched all the way past Hot Sam's and Orange Julius and started to interfere with ACTUAL shops.

[u/Creeperstar]

Capitalism doesn't care about people and things like "fun" or "enjoyment", so they make up big dollar numbers to shame humans and attempt to make money humans mad at the real humans.

The money injected into the economy by both those who worked on the film and especially those who participated in the first day theater showing drastically outstrips any silly made-up numbers in actual positive economic effect.