If you are a Star Wars: The Last Jedi fan, you may have been reading some box office reports over the weekend that seemed really bad. Those box office reports indicated the movie had dropped off 69% during its second weekend in theaters. For comparison, Justice League's second weekend at the box office dropped only 56%, and many people were concerned about how that was no bueno. However, Star Wars: The Last Jedi's huge box office drop isn't as bad as it seems, for a few different reasons.
First and foremost, although Star Wars: The Last Jedi only brought in 68.5 million domestically over the weekend, reports this morning indicate the movie made an additional $32 million on Monday, which just so happened to be Christmas Day. Thanks to calendar shenanigans, this year was the first year since 2006 that Christmas Day fell on a Monday, thus making it difficult to compare the box office to another holiday box office in recent memory. If you count Monday's box office at roughly $32 million, this weekend's box office at $68 million, the $77 million and change the flick made during the week last week, and the $220 million The Last Jedi made during opening weekend, the latest Star Wars flick is flirting with hitting the $400 million mark in the U.S. In fact, it should easily go over that number today.
Previously, I mentioned Justice League's box office in context with Star Wars: The Last Jedi's, but really the numbers for the two movies don't have much in common. During Justice League's first weekend at the box office, the movie underperformed. Early estimates expected the flick to make around $110 million or so domestically, and the movie brought in $96 million instead. So, when the movie dropped 56%, that meant it only made around $40 million during its second weekend at home. Factoring in the film's budget and international performance, Justice League had a whole lot more ground to make up before the studio started making money off of the movie than Star Wars: The Last Jedi does.
Star Wars Episode VIII made $220 million domestically during its opening weekend. Even factoring in that huge 69% drop, the movie has now hit $400 million domestically. As of Monday, it has been estimated to have made over $800 million worldwide, according to Variety. Sure, Star Wars: The Last Jedi may not reach the great heights that Star Wars: The Force Awakens -- the first Star Wars movie in a decade and the first with the original cast in far longer -- but Disney and Lucasfilm don't need to be sitting back and worrying about making money off of Star Wars: The Last Jedi in the same way that Warner Bros. did with Justice League.
A closer comparison might actually be Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, a movie that made $381 million domestically and that dropped a whopping 72% during its second weekend at the box office. Despite the fact that the movie was really front heavy upon its release, it went on to make well over a billion dollars worldwide, and that box office drop was just a blip in the film's radar.
All in all, Star Wars: The Last Jedi is going to make money, and plenty of it. While it may have seen an historic drop in box office numbers this weekend, and it may not manage to beat The Force Awakens during its theatrical run, it's not something the studio is going to be ashamed of as it starts ramping up production on Star Wars Episode IX. We'll keep you updated as soon as that flick gets off of the ground.
