Now in its third weekend in theaters, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is well on its way to passing the billion-dollar mark at the global box office, despite also falling well short of the standards set by the first two entries of the Sequel Trilogy.
At the time of writing, J.J. Abrams’ latest feature has grossed an estimated $851 million worldwide and is predicted to hit $900 million by the end of the weekend. Nonetheless, the film still trails 2017’s The Last Jedi, which managed $1.33 billion in its entire run, which leaves 2015’s The Force Awakens as the Sequel Trilogy’s highest grossing release with a total of $2.07 billion.
With an estimated budget of $275 million, The Rise of Skywalker can hardly be considered an outright bomb at this point, though you have to imagine that Disney was hoping for a fair bit better from the much-hyped final installment in the decades-spanning Skywalker Saga.
After the slight commercial dip between The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, many were once predicting that the trilogy would see a jump in box office numbers with its final entry, just as we saw for the third installment in Lucasfilm’s Prequel Trilogy, but alas, it seems the latest era of the Star Wars franchise is ending on a relative whimper.
Of course, as with every other feature in the Skywalker Saga, The Rise of Skywalker still has its share of vocal defenders, though unlike The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, this one doesn’t especially have the critics on its side, holding a score of just 54% on Rotten Tomatoes. And with a CinemaScore of B+ – the lowest for any live-action Star Wars film to date – it seems that Lucasfilm’s previously announced plan for a movie hiatus may not have come at the worst time.
