Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker Disappoints at Box Office, Making Less Than Previous Films

It still made a lot of money -- $175.5 million in the US alone for its opening weekend -- but that's more like Transformers 4 kind of money, not end-of-a-trilogy Star Wars money.

The pattern in the two previous trilogies has been that the first film made the most money, the second film made the least, and the third film made more than the second, but not as much as the first.

But, due to the Star Wars brand now being unfixably diminished, the third film in this trilogy will make less money than the second.

The first Disney Star Wars movie opened with $248 million, the second with $220 million (and then dropped like a rock after bad word of mouth got out), and the third -- twice burned, thrice shy -- limps in with $175.5 million.

The built-in audience is no longer quite so built in.

"Rise of Skywalker" also had a huge drop-off between Friday and Saturday box office, suggesting that it might suffer an even bigger drop next weekend than The Last Jedi did.

I think Rise of Skywalker will make a billion but only just barely.

The previous movies made $2.1 billion and then $1.3 billion. This one will limp to $1 billion.

This is a lot of money, but not really Star Wars money. Not the money Disney had in mind when it paid George Lucas $4.05 billion for the franchise.

Learn to code, Kathleen Kennedy.

"Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" may have won the weekend's box office, but the Skywalker finale couldn't match its recent predecessors on opening weekend. Still, it amassed a $175.5 million debut that ranked as the third-largest weekend of the year.

The Force was a little less strong with J.J. Abrams' latest film, which came in with worse reviews than any “Star Wars” movie except for 1999's “The Phantom Menace,” which famously heralded the debut of Jar Jar Binks. “The Rise of Skywalker” has a 57% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences, too, were relatively lukewarm to the movie, giving it a B+ CinemaScore.

...

Though it proved divisive with fans, 2017's "Last of the Jedi," directed by Rian Johnson, opened with $220 million and ultimately grossed $1.3 billion worldwide. Abrams' own "The Force Awakens" set a then-record in 2015 with a $248 million debut and sold more than $2 billion in global tickets.

Below, George Lucas continues being salty about Disney Star Wars, and Pitch Meeting Guy pitches Rise of Skywalker.

posted by Ace of Spades at 02:02 PM

| Access Comments