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News > Companies
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Will 'Star Wars' clobber business?
Job tracking firm warns Star Wars sickout could cost $319 million.
May 15, 2002: 5:31 PM EDT

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Should U.S. businesses fear the "Attack of the Clones," the upcoming Star Wars sequel? Yes, according to one well-known outplacement firm.

Many of those going to see the highly anticipated film will be workers either calling in sick or otherwise playing hooky from their jobs, according to Challenger Gray & Christmas. It could end up costing the U.S. economy more than $319 million, the firm estimated.

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"The positive impact of the movie opening, increased consumer spending on movie tickets and refreshments, as well as increased foreign and domestic tourism and business in shops and restaurants near the movie theaters, could be offset by a spike in absenteeism and subsequent decrease in output," John A. Challenger, the CEO of the outplacement firm, said in a statement last week.

Will you play hooky? Take our poll.

"Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace" drew an opening day audience of 5.7 million people. The Chicago-based company said "Attack of the Clones," which opens in theaters nationwide on May 16, is expected to draw just as many, if not more.

Challenger Gray and Christmas, using government demographic data, believes about half of the audience will be full-time wage or salaried workers. With each earning an average of $122.80 a day, lost wages would total more than $319 million.

The top cities for "Phantom Menace" box office returns were New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Philadelphia.  Top of page






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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.