The first Star Wars film to appear at Cannes was 2005’s Revenge Of The Sith. On one hand, it feels somewhat appropriate; the prequel trilogy’s final chapter is generally held up as its best, even if it’s a far cry from the quality of the original set. Revenge Of The Sith was billed as the not-your-father’s Star Wars; on top of the Cannes premiere, it was the first movie in the franchise to earn a PG-13 rating, and George Lucas went so far as to describe it as “Titanic in space.”
“Obviously, fans would love to see a movie about Darth Vader running around, killing people,” Lucas said as the film premiered Stateside. “I’m not telling that story, and I’m not interested in that.” Even if the franchise did eventually give fans exactly that, Revenge Of The Sith was, temporarily, the conclusion of the Skywalker story, and earned both critical acclaim and commercial success that the series hadn’t seen in over two decades. Ultimately, the film grossed $868,390,560 worldwide. [Drew Gillis]
