Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Box Office Lower Than The Last Jedi
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker has opened to a $176 million domestic box office take, well below The Last Jedi.
It’s interesting times when the dead speak and the third highest December opening of ever is still mildly disappointing for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the ostensible finale to the Skywalker saga begun 42 years ago. Indeed, Star Wars: Episode IX posted what genuinely is an astounding box office number this weekend, with early estimates pegging it to have earned $176 million domestically over three days, with a $373.5 million take worldwide.
This tally is on the lower end, but still within, Disney’s projections, which set the floor at $160 million. However, the industry itself was not so eager to lower expectations that far, with the general tracking being between $170 million and $200 million domestically. And as early as Saturday morning, it still looked like the film could gross $190 million this weekend before it settled for less than $180 million in the end.
This is, again, the third highest grossing opening of any December release on record, and a terrific debut for a Yuletide blockbuster that will play well past the holidays and into February 2020. With that said, the number is also sizably behind the last two Star Wars “Episode” movies in the Skywalker Saga. For comparison, Star Wars: The Force Awakens opened to a dizzying $248 million in 2015, which was the then-biggest opening of all time. While Star Wars: The Last Jedi did not replicate that record shattering trick, it still grossed well north of $200 million with a total of $220 million.
The fact Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is opening below both of those numbers shows a notable decline of interest in the franchise among moviegoers who, at the very least, aren’t as universally compelled to uproot their holiday plans to see this movie as soon as possible. The sliding openings among all three movies, in fact, suggests a troubling sign for Disney and Lucasfilm’s ability to maintain excitement for the Star Wars universe. For comparison, Disney’s Marvel Studios continues to shatter records regularly, with Avengers: Infinity War besting The Force Awakens’
opening with $258 million and then its purported “finale,” Avengers: Endgame, earning a staggering $357 million during its opening weekend.
This is not to say that The Rise of Skywalker should be viewed as a box office disappointment. It still opened at a gross many blockbusters would envy as a total domestic run, and above the very well regarded Rogue One, which debuted at $155 million. The Rise of Skywalker is still on track to make $1 billion worldwide. Nevertheless, its lower opening suggests a continuing trend of disengagement among Star Wars fans, and its mixed reception, both critically and among moviegoers, suggests this may be regarded as the least popular non-solo Star Wars movie of the Disney era. Considering this franchise’s storied legacy as the paterfamilias of modern blockbuster culture, these numbers put Disney and Lucasfilm in an interesting place going forward as they plot a Star Wars universe sans Skywalkers going forward.