Chalk it up to lacklustre competition – namely Assassin’s Creed and Passengers – or simply the sheer quality of Rogue One itself, but Gareth Edwards’ spinoff is really beginning to exert its dominance on the international box office as it approaches its third week on the market.
After grossing over $155 million domestically during its opening weekend, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story has gone from strength to strength, financially speaking, and the latest update from Box Office Mojo reveals that Rogue One, the first of Disney and Lucasfilm’s planned anthology series, has collected $615.9 million as of Tuesday, December 27. Of that total cume, North America accounts for $340.6 million – around $275.3 million is overseas, for the sake of comparison – meaning the Star Wars offshoot has comfortably passed both Suicide Squad ($325.1M) and Batman vs Superman ($330.4M) to become the seventh biggest domestic release of 2016.
Perhaps the biggest winner out of the lot is Disney, given the Mouse House has enjoyed a record-shattering year thanks to Finding Dory, Captain America: Civil War, The Jungle Book, Zootopia, and last month’s Doctor Strange, which went on to become the most successful of Marvel’s solo outings.
As for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, it’s about to complete its second week on the market, and there’s no telling how high Gareth Edwards’ anthology film could climb. Strong reviews and positive word of mouth will no doubt maintain this blistering momentum long into the new year, but can Disney’s spinoff break into that all-important billion dollar club? Time will tell.
