star wars: the last jedi

Released on December 9th, in just three weeks, ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ has become the second-highest grossing domestic movie of the year.  It has raked in $444.9M in the U.S. and Canada and $447M overseas, closing in quickly on $900M total.  It is expected to cross $1 billion this weekend.

It has already bested ‘Wonder Woman’ in the U.S. and Canada to become the second-top film of the year and just needs to generate $59.1M by Monday to overtake ‘Beauty & The Beast’ and take the crown of #1 of 2017.  It should accomplish this easily and may even do so before the weekend arrives.

It will NOT hold the same honor globally.  Overall, it has just now claimed the #10 spot, edging out ‘Justice League’ worldwide.  It will not open in the lucrative China market until January 5, 2018.  Offshore, ‘The Last Jedi’ is performing at 34% less than ‘The Force Awakens’ and 36% better than ‘Rogue One’.

The race for 2017 only has a few more days left in it.  ‘Star Wars’ may or may not top ‘Beauty & The Beast’ (but probably will), but January is a wasteland and it should continue drawing audiences during that month.  After all, ‘Beauty & The Beast’ was only as huge as it was because it opened in early March after what was basically a two month drought at the box office.

Last year around this time, ‘Rogue One’ similarly took the spot of #2 film of 2016.  Considering that, unlike that anthology film, ‘The Last Jedi’ is part of the core ‘Star Wars’ story and is already tracking more strongly, it has a very real opportunity to take the #1 spot.  What is especially impressive is that it will accomplish this feat in just three weeks, versus every other movie of the year which had months in theaters.

How many times have you seen ‘The Last Jedi’?  Will you see it again before the year is up?

Source: Deadline