Context
The 1998 summer theatrical season began in early May with Deep Impact, a surprise box office hit that studios saw as a positive indicator for their upcoming 100 film releases.[63][64] Godzilla and Armageddon were expected to be the biggest successes, while industry executives were hopeful for smaller budget films (costing less than $60 million) like Small Soldiers, The Negotiator, The Parent Trap, and There's Something About Mary to become sleeper hits. Fewer sequels and less escapist entertainment were scheduled for release, and more films were targeted toward older audiences.[64][63][10] Saving Private Ryan was highly anticipated but analysis suggested the film faced commercial limitations because of its long runtime, restricting the number of times it could be screened daily, and its violent content.[10][64][63] DreamWorks' marketing chief Terry Press said it was risky to release a serious drama in the summer, a time generally reserved for family and escapist entertainment, but this was offset by Spielberg and Hanks' popularity.[15] A screening for DreamWorks and Paramount executives was highly praised,[11] but Spielberg had low expectations, believing the film was too violent to attract broad audiences.[65]
Box office
The film premiered on July 21, 1998. The event was low-profile without a party or many celebrities as Press said "it would have been inappropriate".[66] Saving Private Ryan was released in the United States and Canada on July 24, 1998.[10][67] During its opening weekend, it earned $30.6 million across 2,463 theaters—an average of $12,414 per theater.[67][10] This figure made it the number 1 film of the weekend, ahead of The Mask of Zorro ($13.4 million), in its second weekend, Lethal Weapon 4 ($13.1 million), in its third, and There's Something About Mary ($12.5 million), also in its second.[68][15] The audience was split evenly between women and men, and skewed towards those aged over 25. The New York Times described it as unusual for a near three-hour long drama to perform so well on its opening weekend, crediting positive reviews. DreamWorks believed the box office figure would have been higher if not for a delay in film prints arriving in hundreds of theaters across California and Arizona until late in the afternoon.[15]
In its second weekend, Saving Private Ryan remained the number 1 film with $23.6 million, ahead of the debuting The Parent Trap ($11.1 million) and There's Something About Mary ($10.9 million) in its third.[69] Saving Private Ryan retained the number 1 position in its third weekend with ($17.4 million), ahead of the debuts of Snake Eyes ($16.3 million) and Halloween H20: 20 Years Later ($16.1 million), and its fourth with $13.2 million, ahead of the debuts of How Stella Got Her Groove Back ($11.3 million) and The Avengers ($10.3 million).[70][71] In its fifth weekend, Saving Private Ryan fell to number 2 with $10.1 million, behind the debut of Blade ($17.1 million).[72] Without regaining the number 1 position, it ranked among the top-ten for 12 weeks.[67] By the end of its theatrical run, Saving Private Ryan earned a total box office gross of $216.5 million, making it the highest-grossing film of the year, ahead of Armageddon ($201.6 million) and There's Something About Mary ($176.5 million).[73][27] This also made it only the third R-rated film to earn more than $200 million, after 1984's Beverly Hills Cop ($235 million) and 1991's Terminator 2: Judgment Day ($205 million).[74]
Outside of the U.S. and Canada, Saving Private Ryan is estimated to have earned a further $265.3 million. This gave the film a cumulative worldwide gross of $481.8 million, making it the second-highest-grossing film of 1998, behind Armageddon ($553.7 million).[75][27][q]
Saving Private Ryan was seen as the biggest success of the theatrical summer. The New York Times wrote that the success of a "prestige film" during a time of blockbuster entertainment with broad appeal was evidence that audiences were accepting of serious dramas alongside action films, such as Armageddon and Godzilla, and "gross-out comedy" like There's Something About Mary. The publication wrote that the popularity of Saving Private Ryan was, in part, because it depicted a "nobler, cleaner era" promoting values of heroism and "patriotic duty".[76] The 1998 box office broke records with over $7 billion earned. Despite expectations, the biggest successes had modest budgets, such as Saving Private Ryan, There's Something About Mary, Rush Hour, and The Waterboy, while the anticipated blockbusters, such as Godzilla and Armageddon were so expensive to make that they were less profitable.[77] Re-releases of Saving Private Ryan have raised the box office to $482.3 million.[1] Spielberg's and Hanks's pay agreement earned them an estimated $30–$40 million each of the box office.[10][15][78]
