Though the commercial performance of The Rise of Skywalker has so far been pretty underwhelming by Star Wars Sequel Trilogy standards, there was never any doubt that the concluding chapter in the Skywalker Saga would top the global box office this weekend. And in the latest TV spot for J.J. Abrams’ new feature, the film’s current status as the “#1 Movie in the World” is declared with pride.
Considering that the biggest competition faced by The Rise of Skywalker was Tom Hooper’s future so-bad-it’s-good cult classic, Cats, there’s a limit to just how impressed we can be by the movie’s box office dominance, but it goes to show, nonetheless, that the Star Wars name still carries a fair amount of heft with filmgoers these days.
But while the movie’s estimated box office haul of $373.5 million would be spectacular by the standards of most films, it still marks an unmistakable drop for the Sequel Trilogy. For comparison, 2015’s The Force Awakens earned a total of $529 million worldwide in its first weekend, while 2017’s The Last Jedi managed $451 million.
Things aren’t looking too great for The Rise of Skywalker on a domestic level, either, with the film taking in an estimated $175.5 million this weekend. Again, most movies could only dream of a North American opening that big, but compared to the equivalent figures for The Force Awakens ($248 million) and The Last Jedi ($220 million), it leaves much to be desired.
So, while the new TV spot may be putting a positive spin on things, you have to imagine that the bosses at Lucasfilm and Disney are getting pretty nervous right now, and the relatively low Cinemascore earned by Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker won’t exactly help matters.
From a box office perspective, it seems the Skywalker Saga is going out with a whimper, and it’ll be interesting to see how the Mouse House tries to course correct for the franchise’s next era.
