Even though Star Wars: The Last Jedi has been out for not much more than two weeks’ worth of time, it has managed to earn more than $1 billion at the box office, which is a significant number to say the least. After all, this is more than enough to make it one of the highest-grossing movies not just in 2017 but in other years as well, which is in addition to the fact that it can expect to continue earning for some time further. Something that is particularly true because Star Wars: The Last Jedi will be opening up in the Chinese market, which should provide the movie with a significant boost because of the sheer number of Chinese movie-goers if nothing else.
How Does the Movie Compare with Other Star Wars Movies?
Currently, The Last Jedi is performing about 35 percent worse than The Force Awakens and about 36 percent better than Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which is not particularly surprising. Historically speaking, the second movie in the Star Wars trilogies tend to fare worse than their predecessors. In part, this seems to be because of the sheer length of time that has passed between Star Wars trilogies, meaning that there is a great deal of enthusiasm from Star Wars fans whenever a new set starts up. Something that can be seen in the numbers for The Phantom Menace in spite of the fact that it was, well, The Phantom Menace.
As a result, The Last Jedi was never expected to match up to the perform of The Force Awakens, particularly since its release date meant that it would be impacted by Christmas Eve falling on a Sunday, which tends to be a notoriously bad time for movie theaters. With that said, even though The Last Jedi was the second movie in a Star Wars trilogy, it was still a movie in a Star Wars trilogy, meaning that it came with a lot of guaranteed movie-goers that Rogue One could not claim regardless of its merits. Summed up, while the performance of The Last Jedi is impressive, it is far from being unexpected.
Further Considerations
Overall, it is interesting to note that the success of The Last Jedi serves as further proof that Disney’s decision to buy Lucasfilm was the right one. After all, Disney bought out Lucasfilm for not much more than $4 billion, meaning that with this latest Star Wars movie, it has managed to earn back the price it paid on nothing but the box office. Of course, just because Disney has managed to earn more than $4 billion at the box office on its three Star Wars movies, it does not mean that it has actually managed to earn back what it paid, seeing as how it has other costs to consider.
Still, it is a powerful sign of the profit potential of the Star Wars franchise, particularly since those earnings are not taking into consideration other factors such as merchandise sales, which are traditionally a huge earner for the franchise. Summed up, The Last Jedi‘s performance bodes well for Disney’s financial future, though it remains to be seen whether Star Wars fatigue will set in at some point considering the pace at which it has been releasing them and is planning to continue releasing them.
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