Though Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker can now count itself among the nine 2019 releases to cross the billion-dollar mark at the global box office, the film’s commercial performance marks an unmistakable decline from the previous two installments in the Skywalker Saga.
On the domestic front, for example, Forbes is now reporting that the Sequel Trilogy finale has been pulled from over 1,200 theaters for its fifth weekend – a development that leaves The Rise of Skywalker screening in just 3,053 cinemas across the country.
To put these numbers into perspective, even Jumanji: The Next Level, which opened one week prior to The Rise of Skywalker, will be shown in 3,323 domestic theaters this weekend. And while J.J. Abrams’ latest feature has dropped 1,353 theaters in the past four weeks, the new Jumanji has dropped just 904 in five weeks.
In fact, just comparing the respective weekend hauls of each of these two franchise flicks paints a striking picture. On the one hand, Jumanji took in $26.2 million domestically on its fourth weekend and $14 million on its fifth. Meanwhile, The Rise of Skywalker managed $15.2 million on its fourth weekend and is expected to make just $12.2 million on its fifth. To put it bluntly, Abrams’ era-closing blockbuster is falling fast.
Of course, with a domestic total of $483.6 million and a global total of $1.003 billion, we’re surely past the point where Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker can be considered an outright box office bomb. Still, looking at the $1.333 billion total of 2017’s The Last Jedi (not to mention the $2.068 billion haul of The Force Awakens), you have to imagine that Disney was expecting a whole lot better from the much-hyped finale of the Skywalker Saga.
