“When the $80,027,814 final tally for Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones’s weekend was issued on Monday, 20th Century Fox’s $86.15 million estimate from Sunday turned out to be off by $6.12 million. That raised a number of eyebrows, especially in light of rival studios’ estimates that had Clones pegged at closer to $80 million.” – Box Office Mojo

“Discrepancies of the estimates happen like this but usually only by about $1-2 million, not six. While this changes nothing in terms of the records it has broken so far, the reason some are claiming to be motivated by a little jealousy. FOX’s four day haul for SW2 properly stands at $110.2 million, a few steps short of the three day opening of “Spider-Man” with $114.9 million though when FOX made the exaggerated estimate ($116.2) it seemed that it had come a lot closer to beating the webslinger than it actually did.” – Dark Horizons

Hahahahaha! I guess Fox and Lucas were just JEeAaLLoUSSssS of Spider-Man’s success.

Tsk tsk.

And that’s not the end of it either:

“The day after CNN’s Connie Chung did a live show from “Star Wars” auteur George Lucas’ famed Skywalker Ranch, CNN was asked not to attend a “Star Wars: Attack of the Clones” press junket on the property. The Insider’s tipsters said CNN was tossed off the ranch, but CNN says that’s an exaggeration, that there was “no physical removal” of anyone, that there was a “conversation” and that “as conversations like that go, it was fairly cordial.”

The tipsters also say that what apparently rubbed Mr. Lucas the wrong way was that Ms. Chung, in a taped piece that set up her live May 7 interview with the moviemaker, ever so lightly suggested that “Episode One: The Phantom Menace” was, “to most, a disappointment.”

“For all its special effects, critics complained about stereotyping, stale plot lines, even racism,” Ms. Chung summed up, followed by a sound bite from controversial “Phantom Menace” character Jar Jar Binks saying, “Oh, this is going to get messy.”

At CNN, the stance is that Mr. Lucas expected a one-hour love letter and a wet kiss in return for the access CNN was allowed and didn’t feel he got that.” – Electronic Media Online

Boo hoo hoo Lucas. Boo hoo hoo.