“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” has crossed the $502 million mark at the domestic box office and is almost at $481M at the international box office, meaning it will slip beyond $1 billion threshold globally very soon. With great numbers like these the movie currently sits seventh on the all time domestic gross list and has the sixth spot easily within reach.
“Rogue One” is now 2016’s highest-grossing film in the US and Canada. In fact, Disney has five of the top seven films released domestically in 2016. That’s about as good as it gets for a Hollywood Studios.
The only bad news for Disney is that after a string of weekends a top the box office (last week it was in second), it slipped to #5 for the 3-day weekend.
The strong international performance includes great numbers from China (which also loved “The Force Awakens). Disney cast two Chinese actors in Rogue One (Donnie Yen and Jiang Wen) and held a premiere in Beijing to promote the movie and its stars. It’s already earned more than $54 million in just two weeks of release in China.
We also heard from Lucasfilm that they are not planning to digitally recreate Carrie Fisher as General Organa in Episode IX or any future Star Wars movies. That rumor started when Lucasfilm was said to approach the Fisher estate for rights to use her image. Looks like that was just for merchandise or perhaps in some form to add a scene in Episode VIII.
Note: This is a developing story as we wait for final box office numbers to be posted for the 4-day weekend.