Like all great stories, the Skywalker Saga must come to its conclusion.
After eight films and over four decades, the beloved sci-fi franchise will reach its triumphant endgame with the upcoming Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. And it’s about to bring us the space battle to end all space battles.
With the most recent trailer featuring more than a dozen shots good enough to leave the Star Wars fanbase rooted to the edge of their seats, it’s no surprise that advanced ticket sales are outperforming even Avengers: Endgame. After all, this is the grand finale to a saga which kicked off way back in 1977.
But will those sales translate into a strong box office opening for The Rise of Skywalker? That remains to be seen, but some new projections from Box Office Pro paint a somewhat underwhelming picture.
Right now, early estimates are as follows:
Opening weekend range: $185 – 225 million
Opening weekend estimate: $200,000,000 for the three-day opening December 20-22.
Domestic total range: $550-750 million
On the surface, those don’t look too bad and would be more than fine for almost any other film. But it’s important to remember that The Force Awakens pulled in $248 million in its opening weekend while The Last Jedi did $220 million. So, even though The Rise of Skywalker could end up topping Rian Johnson’s divisive franchise entry, there’s also a good chance that it might not match it and thus, give Lucasfilm the lowest opening weekend of the Sequel Trilogy.
Box Office Pro is currently going with $200 million but seeing as we’re still about two months away, things can easily change and with the promotion now starting to ramp up, it wouldn’t be surprising to see J.J. Abrams’ upcoming trilogy-closer make a bit more than that.
In any case, we’ll find out soon enough, as Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker hits cinemas on December 20th. And only then will we know whether the Sequel Trilogy goes out on a high note or an underwhelming one.
