Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace’s theatrical rerelease has proven that it’s time for Star Wars to return to the big screen. This year, The Phantom Menace kicked off its 25th-anniversary celebrations by returning to cinemas for a limited time. With screenings starting on this year’s Star Wars Day, plenty of older Star Wars fans could relive the magic of Darth Maul’s intimidating presence and the introduction of a young Anakin Skywalker, while others could experience the majesty of John Williams’ Duel of the Fates and the early days of Queen Amidala’s reign on the big screen for the very first time.

Though Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace was largely derided when it was initially released in 1999 – fans complained (loudly and unkindly) about Jar Jar Binks’ character, Jake Lloyd’s performance as a nine-year-old Anakin, and the film’s over-reliance on CGI – the first installment of the Star Wars prequel trilogy has since become a firm favorite with a new generation of Star Wars fans. The movie’s rerelease in cinemas has proven not only that The Phantom Menace is a beloved Star Wars movie, but that there is a desire, perhaps even a need, for Star Wars to begin making movies again, too.

The Phantom Menace’s Rerelease Has Been A Tremendous Success

During the weekend of May 4 and May 5, The Phantom Menace beat all but one new release at the box office. While Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt’s new action-comedy, The Fall Guy, won the box office race with a total of $28.5 million, The Phantom Menace came in second, earning $8.1 million, while the highly anticipated Challengers earned $7.1 million during its second weekend, and new horror film Tarot opened to $6.5 million. For a rerelease, The Phantom Menace’s box office performance is extraordinary.

In comparison, Sam Raimi’s original Spider-Man trilogy was recently rereleased in cinemas as well. According to IGN, the first movie, Spider-Man, earned $681k domestically (the movies were only rereleased in select cinemas in the U.S.) during the weekend of April 15, while Spider-Man 2’s rerelease earned slightly more, with $805k, the following weekend. The weekend after that, Spider-Man 3’s rerelease earned $760,000 at the domestic box office, as reported by Collider. For a limited rerelease, these are undoubtedly impressive numbers, but they make The Phantom Menace’s success all the more staggering.

There’s no denying that Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man films are beloved, and the character is one of the most popular comic book icons of all time. If The Phantom Menace, a movie that was originally widely criticized, can out-earn such a wildly praised film, it not only proves that it is now being seen in a new light, but it also proves that the franchise still has an astounding amount of pull when it comes to getting audiences into cinemas. Yes, The Phantom Menace was available to watch in more theaters than Spider-Man, but it’s clear that the demand for a theatrical Star Wars experience is at an all-time high.

There’s Clearly Still An Appetite For Star Wars Movies

Star Wars’ most recent movie efforts were undeniably contentious. While Star Wars: The Force Awakens earned over $2 billion at the worldwide box office, and Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker each earned over $1 billion at the global box office, those movies divided both the franchise’s loyal fanbase and general audiences. A lack of narrative cohesion and the trilogy’s handling of some of its legacy and newer characters were most often cited as the reasons for the overall lukewarm reaction to the Star Wars sequel trilogy, and Star Wars’ cinematic future has been in limbo ever since.

Relative box office disappointments like Solo: A Star Wars Story haven’t helped matters, either. Star Wars’ second (and seemingly last) anthology film, Solo, was never able to reach the heights of its predecessor, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story either, earning less than $400 million at the worldwide box office on a budget of $275 million. Both the critical and financial issues of Star Wars’ most recent movie efforts forced the franchise to re-evaluate its output, and in the meantime, plenty of writers, directors, and story ideas were dismissed or discarded before anything could move beyond the ideation stage.

Thankfully, Star Wars now seems to have a theatrical plan in mind. Hopefully, upcoming movies like The Mandalorian & Grogu, Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi, and Star Wars: New Jedi Order will be able to restore faith in the franchise. If The Phantom Menace rerelease has proven anything, it’s that some Star Wars stories work best when they’re seen on the big screen. The spectacle, the heart, the gorgeous vistas and locales, the drama, and the epic space battles were meant for the big screen. The franchise’s small-screen stories, while compelling and exciting in their own right, often don’t elicit the same emotional response.

Star Wars TV Shows Are Great… But This Is Still A Film Franchise At Heart

Star Wars is, first and foremost, a theatrical franchise. TV shows like The Mandalorian, Ahsoka, Andor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, The Acolyte, and Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, and animated shows like Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels, and Star Wars: The Bad Batch are great for filling in the gaps in the franchise’s timeline. They tell well-rounded, emotional, character-driven stories, ones that can make use of the additional runtime provided by a TV format, and supply additional context to the major events taking place in the movies. The Bad Batch and The Mandalorian, for instance, have provided vital information about Palpatine’s resurrection in The Rise of Skywalker.

The movies should still be the driving force of Star Wars’ overarching narrative, however. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the franchise needs to keep focusing on the Skywalker saga (though New Jedi Order will continue that story), but rather that the galaxy’s major turning points can, and arguably should, be explored in the movies. Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace’s rerelease has proven the power of the Star Wars brand – now is the time to capitalize on that further.