Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker crosses the $1 billion mark. It’s a reason to celebrate, but let’s look at why it didn’t get there faster.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker surpassed the $1 billion mark in in global ticket sales on Tuesday, according to Deadline.
This is good news for Lucasfilm and Disney. For Disney, it’s the seventh movie of 2019 to surpass the $1 billion threshold. It also makes The Rise of Skywalker the 46th best-selling movie of all-time.
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But is this all good news? It’s mostly good news for Disney because it made it a lot of money – and the $1 billion mark is something any movie studio would be proud of.
Yet all of it comes with a little caution. Of all the Star Wars movies released, it’s still the fifth-highest grossing movie within the franchise. The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, Rogue One and The Phantom Menace all sit ahead of it on the list.
Additionally, this was the Skywalker Saga finale. It was the culmination of 42 years of one Star Wars story. Considering the push behind it, you would have expected the film to get to the milestone faster because it’s not as though fans of franchises weren’t willing to shell out money for movies.
Avengers: Endgame pulled more than $2.7 billion globally, making the top-grossing movie of all time.
So, what happened to Star Wars?
There were several factors involved.
Many fans were disenfranchised after The Last Jedi and vowed to not see the next movie in theaters. It seems many kept their word.
Even more so, there seemed to be less people seeing it multiple times. There are also some places globally where Star Wars has never resonated such as China.
The Rise of Skywalker won’t be making a run for Endgame’s box office number, but $1 billion is nothing to be disappointed over. There are factors that led to it and, hopefully, before the next movie some of them will be addressed.
LFL has at least two years to figure it out.
In the meantime, all those who didn’t watch the movie in theaters will likely wait to watch it once it’s on Disney+.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is currently in theaters.