Star Wars; The Last Jedi is all set to surpass the $1 billion landmark at the global box office during the New Year’s holiday weekend. It has only been a week in theaters all over the world, when The Last Jedi went past the half billion mark. With not much competition and a long weekend, The Last Jedi did well on Christmas weekend, flattening rivals such as Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.
Courtesy the success of films such as Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Beauty and the Beast, Disney has totally ruled the domestic box office in 2017. As the last Disney movie of the year, The Last Jedi will also turn out to be the biggest money-maker of the year when the year is wrapped up. What’s even better is that the film’s earnings will set the tone for 2018 and ensure that Disney starts the year strongly.
As reported by Variety, Star Wars: The Last Jedi will go past the $1 billion milestone during the weekend on global box office, even before the new year rings in. Yesterday’s tally added a further $42.1 million to the movie’s total and took it to $464.6 million at the domestic box office after two weeks. The film’s total is at $934.2 million worldwide, which makes it quite obvious that the movie will cross the $1 billion total in a couple of days (if not tonight itself).
Although, it is unlikely to the $2.07 billion total earned by Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but, The Last Jedi will surely overtake the $1.06 billion earned by Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Even in the face of some fan resentment, Lucasfilm’s faith in Rian Johnson as the writer/director has paid rich dividends critically as well as financially. Taking that into account, it is not surprising that he will soon make his own Star Wars trilogy.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi’s performance also vindicates Disney’s faith because the company spent $4 billion to buy the studio back in 2012. Today’s earnings mean that Disney has recovered the investment it made in Lucasfilm because the three Star Wars films released so far have earned for them more than $4 billion at the box office and through other earnings from merchandise and licensing.
No matter what future has in store for Star Wars, the mega success of the recent three Lucasfilm movies during the last few years is bound to embolden Disney to approve more projects based on the galaxy far, far away. Now that Johnson’s changes have become hot topics, it has been proven that the attempt to chart a fresh course hasn’t reduced Star Wars: The Last Jedi’s profitability.
