Is there any stopping Star Wars: The Last Jedi? Ever since its debut a few weeks ago, the latest chapter in the Skywalker saga has blown past one box office record after another, destroying any and all competition and quickly making its way to that much sought after $1 billion mark – which it’s now passed. Not only that, but thanks to Episode VIII‘s haul, Star Wars has now become the second highest grossing franchise of all-time, trailing behind Disney’s other behemoth, the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
But now The Last Jedi can add yet another notch to its belt, as this week it passed Rogue One both domestically and worldwide. On home turf, Rian Johnson’s pic now has $533 million, while Edwards’ spinoff did $532 million. Globally, the former has $1,056,389,228, compared to the latter’s $1,056,057,273. And, of course, The Last Jedi still has a while to go before it leaves theaters.
Of course, none of this is all that surprising, as everyone expected Lucasfilm’s latest release to surpass their first Anthology movie, but it’s still nice to see Episode VIII doing so well – even if it won’t beat The Force Awakens. After all, Abrams’ franchise revival had already done $742 million domestically at this point in its theatrical run. Then again, that was also a cinematic event like none other and we don’t imagine any release passing it for a long, long time.
Overall, we’ve been told that Star Wars: The Last Jedi is headed for a grand total in excess of $1.6 billion, potentially placing the Rian Johnson sequel in the company of greatness. Only Jurassic World, The Force Awakens, Titanic and Avatar have grossed more – not accounting for inflation – so even after three movies in as many years, the Force is still strong in Lucasfilm’s franchise.