GALLUP NEWS SERVICE
See it, you will…
Buy the tickets, you will…
Buy the merchandise, of course you will…
Enough Yoda-speak…While the lines are getting shorter and shorter to see the latest episode in the "Star Wars" saga these days, don't cry for George Lucas. A new Gallup/CNN/USA Today poll shows 15% of American adults have seen "Episode I: The Phantom Menace" since it opened on May 19. That is up from the 4% of adults who told Gallup interviewers they saw the movie on its opening weekend.
To put it in perspective, with an estimated 200 million adults in the U.S. population, 15% amounts to 30 million adults -- and that doesn't even count the teenagers. Box office records show "Phantom Menace" has racked up $255 million dollars in ticket sales so far -- and that doesn't even count the endless merchandise tie-ins.
Who's spending all this money? The Gallup survey shows the average "Phantom Menace" viewer is most likely to be male, white, young, and college-educated. Eighteen percent of adult males have seen the movie, compared to 12% of women. In addition, 16% of whites have seen it, compared to just 7% of blacks.
Nearly three out of ten adults aged 18-29 have seen "Phantom Menace" -- while only 2% of those 65 and over have. Those aged 30-49 -- most of whom were teens and young adults when the original "Star Wars" was released in 1977 -- are also likely to have seen the movie (17%).
Science fiction tends to attract a more highly educated audience, and "Phantom Menace" appears to be no exception. Twenty-eight percent of college graduates have seen it, compared to just 8% of those with a high school education or less.
The results below are based on telephone interviews with a randomly selected national sample of 1,053 adults, 18 years and older, conducted June 4-5, 1999. For results based on this sample, one can say with 95 percent confidence that the maximum error attributable to sampling and other random effects is plus or minus 3 percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.
Have you, personally, seen the new Star Wars movie called "The Phantom Menace"?
| May 21-23 1999 |
Jun 4-5 1999 |
|
|---|---|---|
| Yes | 4% | 15% |
| No | 96 | 85 |
| No opinion | 0 | 0 |
| 100% | 100% |
| Gender | Yes | No |
|---|---|---|
| Male | 18% | 82% |
| Female | 12 | 88 |
| Race | ||
| White | 16 | 84 |
| Black | 7 | 93 |
| Age | ||
| 18-29 | 29 | 71 |
| 30-49 | 17 | 83 |
| 50-64 | 10 | 90 |
| 65+ | 2 | 98 |
| Education | ||
| H.S. or less | 8 | 92 |
| College graduate | 28 | 72 |
