Nine films and 42 years later, the “Star Wars” Skywalker Saga finally concluded this past weekend with Disney’s “The Rise of Skywalker,” and despite a solid thumbs up from hardcore fanboys, the movie performed below its predecessors in the box office, putting it on track to be the worst-performing “Star Wars” of the Disney trilogy.
“Disney’s sequel launched with an estimated $198.0M overseas and $373.5M global opening weekend, but that was noticeably down from the prior two installments,” writes Jesse Rifkin at Box Office Pro. “It represents the 17th-biggest global weekend of all time, which would be terrific news for just about any other movie. However, it was down from 2015’s ‘The Force Awakens’ with $528.9M (4th-biggest) and 2017’s ‘The Last Jedi’ with $450.8M (8th-biggest).”
No doubt, “Rise of Skywalker” will turn a profit and further line Mickey Mouse’s coffers, but should the movie max out somewhere between $600 to $700 million globally, that would further signify that the “Star Wars” franchise has lost its luster. However, the coming Christmas break should help bolster its performance as Americans hit the theaters throughout the week. As Scott Mendelson of Forbes writes:
Even if Rise of Skywalker collapses, Disney will still be king of the mountain, especially if The Mandalorian delivers a crowdpleasing season finale. Star Wars was always going to face huge challenges and an uncertain future after Rise of Skywalker. If Star Wars IX is disliked (or indifferently received) by the masses, that’s a problem for the next one. It also puts more pressure on the Avatar sequels, beginning in December of 2021, but that’s the kind of challenge James Cameron would relish. Or, it could just be another Disney biggie to open slightly under expectations only to leg it over its first month, think Toy Story 4 and Frozen II.
One country that “Rise of Skywalker” will be getting no help from is China, where the movie flopped in its opening weekend, earning just a dismal $12 million dollars in a market that Hollywood desperately wants to conquer. Overall, experts predict the movie will have to work overtime just to cross the $20 million mark in that country.
Compare that with 2016’s “The Force Awakens,” which pulled $52.3 million on its opening weekend and a box office total of $126 million. From there, the franchise only declined in value, with “Rogue One” pulling in a box office total of $69.4 million and “The Last Jedi” petering out with just $42.6 million. No matter how one slices it, the “Star Wars” franchise has completely lost traction in the Chinese market.
Currently, the film holds a tepid rating of 57% on Rotten Tomatoes with an IMDB score of 7.0. As noted by The Daily Wire on the film’s opening day, a rift has occurred between the critics and hardcore fans, who gave the movie an audience score of 86% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Regardless of whether or not “The Rise of Skywalker” has any merit, few can deny that the Disney trilogy has soured the movie franchise as everyone wonders what on earth the studio plans to do next.