The Rise of Skywalkerinitial box office predictions for its opening weekend have taken a hit after negative reviews. The final installment in the sequel trilogy was already on track to have the lowest opening so far, but nobody expected it to fall in line withRogue Onenumbers. When the initial estimates were made, the studio was hoping for positive word of mouth to boost the opening weekend ticket sales, but that unfortunately has not happened. As of this writing, the movie has a 57% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
The Rise of Skywalker reviewsare in and they’re not pretty. Without getting into specifics, the long-awaited movie has been criticized for being overstuffed and not making much sense. Some have even called it the worst movie out of the entire franchise, which might be a bit of a stretch. Regardless, the final installment inthe Skywalker Sagawas on track to earn just belowThe Last Jedi’s $220 million debut with hopes that it would exceed the Rian Johnson-directed movie in time.
As of now,The Rise of Skywalkeris estimated to bring in anywhere from $160 million to $190 million domestically. In comparison,Rogue Onebrought in $155 million during its opening weekend. Thepositive word of mouth isn’t happeningfor the movie as the negative reviews continue to land online. There are positive reviews for the sequel, but the bad seem to be outweighing the good at this time. With that being said,The Rise of Skywalkerisn’t going to lose money at the box office, it’s just not going to get anywhere near the epic numbers ofAvengers: Endgame, which is now the highest grossing movie of all time, or even 2015’sThe Force Awakens.
Even Disney has admitted that they tried to put out too muchStar Warstoo fast, which is also a pretty big factor as to whyThe Rise of Skywalker’s opening weekendwon’t be stellar. While critics enjoyedThe Last Jedi, fans did not and they are still voicing their opinions, two years later. WhenSolohit theaters less than 6 months later, a lot of fans had had enough. Disney is now rethinking their strategy and have put their big screen projects on hold for a few years, which seems like the wise thing to do.
Looking ahead, Lucasfilm and Disney are focusing on the new Disney+ shows, which are various stages of development. The first show,The Mandalorian, has proven to be a huge success for the new streaming platform and theStar Warsfranchise as a whole. Looking at the small screen projects might be what it takes to get everything back to normal in terms of the franchise success while giving the big screen a rest. The newbox office estimates for The Rise of Skywalkercome to us fromBox Office Pro.
