It’s been another bumper weekend for The Rise of Skywalker, bringing in an estimated $72m over the three day period bringing the domestic tally to $361.8 and worldwide to $724.8, meaning a billion dollar final haul is inevitable. However, the film is slowing down faster than expected, meaning the 9th episode will likely be the first final trilogy chapter not to outgross its predecessor (in North America Return of the Jedi outgrossed The Empire Strikes Back, and Revenge of the Sith outgrossed Attack of the Clones).
The weekend isn’t looking good for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, as it is falling a lot faster than I expected. If estimates hold, it will fall 59% to $72.0 million over the weekend for a running tally of $361.8 million after two weeks of release. However, this is still a massive amount of money. It is already the seventh-biggest hit released in 2019, and is on pace to earn third place on that chart, maybe even second. Internationally, the film added $94.3 million in 52 markets for a running tally of $363.0 million internationally and $724.8 million worldwide. That’s without any earnings from South Korea, where it will debut in a couple of weeks. It should have no trouble getting to $1 billion worldwide by the end of its run, but most were expecting a lot more than that. It is yet another profitable disappoint—and we saw too many of those in 2019.
Rise is now the 7th biggest hit of 2019 in North America, just behind Spider-Man: Far From Home which it should pass early this week and looks likely to climb as high as second position, passing The Lion King but far behind Avengers: Endgame, the highest grossing film of all time.
It also became the 4th fastest film to break the $300m barrier, doing so in 8 days and matching Jurassic World, The Last Jedi and Black Panther and the 5th fastest to $350m, equalling The Avengers and The Lion King. 12 days to $400m looks likely, which will equal The Last Jedi in 5th position.
The film is now in 51st position on the all time domestic list, 111th on the all time worldwide list just behind Up! and will leap up that list if the week brings the expected numbers, breaking in into the all time top 80. A billion dollar haul will take it into the all time top 50, with Rogue One catchable on $1,056,057,273 and The Last Jedi likely out of reach with $1,332,539,889.
