Well, that certainly didn’t take long.
Building on that huge, record-setting debut, Star Wars: The Last Jedi is already within arm’s reach of the half-billion mark. Thanks to a stellar Monday ($21.6 million domestic for a global total of $43.8 million), the Lucasfilm sequel is now simmering at $494.6 million worldwide, and will likely pass that half-billion milestone by end of day Tuesday.
As The Hollywood Reporter notes, that Monday haul is actually considerably lower than that of The Force Awakens (and Rogue One!), which scored $40.1 million in North America two years ago. Meanwhile, Rogue One added a further $32.1 million on its first Monday.
There is, however, a good reason for this anomaly; in 2017, Christmas Day falls on a Monday, meaning fewer schools have closed for the holidays at the time of writing. The same logic applies overseas, where Germany and France have added $25.4 million and $20.7 million to The Last Jedi‘s total cume, respectively. It’s also worth noting that Star Wars: The Last Jedi has ostensibly tightened its grip on every international market – barring China, where it doesn’t open until January 5th. And we all know how much China can influence a film’s box office cume.
Exactly how high The Last Jedi can climb is, of course, the billion-dollar question. The Force Awakens ended its theatrical run north of $2 billion, though J.J. Abrams’ franchise revival held the distinction of being the first Star Wars movie in over a decade.
Rogue One, on the other hand, placed much lower on the box office charts, as the Gareth Edwards-directed anthology pic brought in a total of $1.05 billion last December. In related news, inquisitive Star Wars fans recently uncovered an Easter egg from Rogue One that foreshadowed a major plot of The Last Jedi. Don’t worry, no spoilers here; we’ll simply point you in the direction of this link.
