Disney was probably never worried that spending more than $4 billion to buy Lucasfilm back in 2012 wouldn’t pay off, but now they can rest easy knowing it was a great investment.Star Wars: Rogue One, the first standaloneStar Warsanthology movie, has officially crossed the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office. No matter how you look at it, that makes the movie a big success and should give the Mouse House a lot of confidence thatStar Warscan be a massive cash cow for them for many years to come.
According toBox Office Mojo,Rogue One: A Star Wars Storyhas grossed a grand total of $1.011 billion, with this weekend’s estimated take factored in. Even when factoring in the reported $200 million production budget and the surely large promotional budget, that makesRogue Onea very profitable movie for Disney and Lucasfilm. Not only that, but save for a few scenes with Darth Vader, the movie largely focused on new and unfamiliar characters within theStar Wars universeand didn’t have anything to do with the main Skywalker saga. So, the fact that aStar Warsmovie of that nature was able to gross more than $1 billion at the box office is a very big deal.
With the moneyRogue One: A Star Wars Storywas able to add to its total this week, it is now the fourth highest-grossing movie released in 2016 worldwide. It should be able to passZootopia’s $1.023 billion gross in the next week or so, which would move it into the number three spot.Finding Doryis currently sitting in the number two spot with $1.027 billion and it now seems inevitable thatRogue Onewill overtake the Pixar sequel fairly soon. That would only leaveCaptain America: Civil Warahead of the latestStar Warsmovie. The thirdCaptain Americamovie from Marvel Studios grossed a grand total of $1.153 billion, so that will be a little more difficult forRogue One: A Star Wars Storyto manage, but it is very possible.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Storyis the firstanthology moviefrom Disney and Lucasfilm, of which they are planning many more. That made it something of a risk, inasmuch as making aStar Wars moviecan be a risk, ahead of its release. That risk proved to be worthwhile, since the movie has now grossed more than $1 billion and that should give Lucasfilm confidence to try some different things as they move ahead with these anthology movies in the future. That can only be good news forStar Warsfans moving forward. Next up will be the youngHan Solomovie, which is due out in 2018 and is currently gearing up for production.
There was zero expectation thatRogue Onewould do whatStar Wars: The Force Awakensbox office numbers did, since that was the first live-actionStar Warsmovie to be released sinceStar Wars: Revenge of the Sith, and there was a crazy amount of hype leading up to it.Star Wars: The Force Awakenswound up bringing in more than $2 billion at theworldwide box office, making it the third highest-grossing movie ever and the highest-grossing movie that wasn’t directed byJames Cameron, sinceTitanicandAvatarare sitting the number two and number one spots respectively. Next up forStar Warsfans is going to beStar Wars: Episode VIII, which we should be learning some details about very shortly and is due out in theaters on December 15. IfRogue One: A Star Wars Storyis any sort of indicator, Disney should be getting ready for another big hit at the end of 2017.
