We always knew that Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was going to make money. It's a Star Wars movie, after all. The questions always were "how much?" and "how quickly?" Now that the standalone movie is in theaters, the answers are starting to arrive, as Gareth Edwards' Rogue One is expected to sail passed $200 million at the domestic box office, on day number six.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story pulled off this impressive feat, according to Deadline, by maintaining its strong box office numbers on Monday AND Tuesday following its smashing opening weekend. The trade says that Rogue One banked nearly $18 million on each day, and did so during a time when the number of K-12th graders off from school only increased incrementally, as many schools are still in session and have yet to give way for the Christmas or holiday break. Last year, by this time, more schools had dismissed for the holidays, giving J.J. Abrams' Star Wars: The Force Awakens a bigger boost in attendance. Also, Force was the first Star Wars story to hit theaters in years, so the curiosity factor was higher.
Internationally, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story continues to perform extremely well. The Star Wars spinoff solo standalone movie has grossed an estimated $339 million, according to BoxOfficeMojo, with at least one more major market -- China -- yet to drop. The film opens in China on January 6, 2017, though to be honest, China hasn't been a massive market for Star Wars, because the films were kept out of the theaters there for so long that the popularity of the series never reached the same heights as her in the U.S.
Walt Disney and LucasFilm have to feel good about the performance of Rogue One at the box office, because at the moment, it is the riskiest of the projects on the studio's slate. Given the overwhelming success of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, audiences will flock to Rian Johnson's Episode VIII and, likely, Colin Trevorrow's Episode IX. And the next standalone film focuses on an already proven character in Han Solo. This was the movie where the audience needed a learning curve, and it would be possible that audiences wouldn't embrace the characters, or the story.
That hasn't been the case so far, though it will be interesting to see how Rogue One performs in the coming weeks. Where The Force Awakens was a behemoth for weeks, Rogue One faces real competition from Assassin's Creed, Passengers, Sing and several Oscar contenders reaching theaters. How much more will Rogue One: A Star Wars Story make?
