Due to the backlash against Disney’s Sequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker performed underwhelmingly at the box office, though the movie has finally managed to pass Rogue One.
J.J. Abrams, as the director of the last film in the Skywalker Saga, had a lot of pressure on his shoulders to conclude a 40-year-old narrative in a satisfying manner. Not only did The Rise of Skywalker have to give us a fulfilling resolution to the conflicts of the Sith and the Jedi, but also pay tribute to a galaxy far, far away as one of the greatest and most popular intellectual properties of all time.
However, as is the fate of every Star Wars movie, Episode IX proved to be just as divisive as its predecessors, if not more. Many fans felt that Abrams was trying to backtrack from The Last Jedi, the result of which was a pic that served more as fan-service than a sequel that should’ve built on what came before.
Taking all this controversy into account and the fact that many diehard fans boycotted the movie, The Rise of Skywalker has fallen short of The Last Jedi‘s gross by a huge margin, though it has recently managed to pass Rogue One to become the third highest-grossing entry in the franchise.
The Force Awakens currently sits at the top with $2.068 billion, while The Last Jedi grossed only $1.332 billion. Rogue One earned $1.056 billion in its entire run, but The Rise of Skywalker has finally edged it out with $1.058 billion.
Of course, considering the fact that the former was a spinoff, the last movie in the saga has certainly performed disappointingly. But we can bet that Disney’s just happy that the movie wasn’t a bomb like Solo, which only took in $392.9 million to set an all-time low for the franchise.
At any rate, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will soon end its theatrical run, but with Lucasfilm currently developing a new saga of movies, the story as a whole is far from being over.
