Now open in the UK with the States ahead tomorrow, The Rise of Skywalker looks set to enjoy a blockbusting opening weekend at the worldwide box office. Indicators have the final Skywalker Saga entry coming in worldwide with around $450m globally, which would place it in the all-time top ten opening weekends and at roughly the same amount as The Last Jedi 2 years ago.
For comparison, here’s a look at the current top ten, which this year saw Avengers: Endgame almost double the tally of the previous top film, 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War.
1 Avengers: Endgame 2019 $1,223,641,414
2 Avengers: Infinity War 2018 $640,521,291
3 The Fate of the Furious 2017 $541,937,239
4 Star Wars: The Force Awakens 2015 $528,966,675
5 Jurassic World 2015 $524,909,010
6 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 2011 $483,189,427
7 Captain Marvel 2019 $456,718,598
8 Star Wars: The Last Jedi 2017 $450,821,889
9 Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice 2016 $422,507,347
10 Furious 7 2015 $397,627,459
Anything over $400 million will mean every episode of the sequel trilogy will at some point have placed in the top ten all time biggest openings, and see Star Wars match Marvel with 3 films in the top ten.
With the film now out and word-of-mouth generating a sizeable buzz, a final tally similar to or north of The Last Jedi looks likely with north of $600 million in the States and a similar amount worldwide (cracking the Chinese box office once again looks unlikely) meaning – as with every trilogy – the first episode will be the biggest hitter commercially, the second the lowest and the third somewhere in between.