Only when talking about Disney and a franchise like Star Wars could the box office performance of The Rise of Skywalker be considered a disappointment.
Currently sitting at around $989 million, the last episode of “The Skywalker Saga” seems to be lagging behind its predecessors in breaking the $1 billion mark.
The Force Awakens took only 12 days to break a billion in 2015, and The Last Jedi did it in 19 days, despite receiving a chilly reception from much of the fandom.
The Rise of Skywalker opened on December 20, 2019 and we’re now 24 days from opening. While its getting close to hitting that $1 billion mark, it’s happening at a much slower pace than Disney probably had hoped for.
Factor in the high cost of the film, those reported reshoots, plus a slowdown in Star Wars merchandise sales and The Rise of Skywalker might not be even close to being in the black yet.
‘The Rise of Skywalker’ is Divisive.
Part of the issue with the movie could be the critical beating the film has taken. Currently sitting at 53% on Rotten Tomatoes, The Rise of Skywalker is tied with the much-maligned The Phantom Menace for the worst reviewed live-action Star Wars movie of all time.
Ouch!
Fans of Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi were angry that the J.J. Abrams walked back a lot of that director’s decisions, while many “Reylos” (fans of Rey and Kylo Ren becoming romantically involved) were devastated the two didn’t get their happy ending together.
Many disenfranchised Star Wars fans sat this one out altogether, either out of protest or a lack of interest in the Disney Star Wars sequel trilogy after The Last Jedi.
While some people did enjoy the film, obviously, it’s clearly not the crowd pleaser that The Force Awakens was in 2015.
Is The Force still with Star Wars?
Again, for what was a much hyped final entry into the Star Wars saga, crawling to a billion like this is kind of an embarrassment for Disney, and does reinforce that Star Wars is damaged goods.
This on top of Galaxy’s Edge initially being called “a flop” by the media, a sharp downward trend in Star Wars toys sales, and declining box office seems to indicate that the moviegoing public (and oldschool fans) might have had their fill of Disney’s version of Star Wars for now.
But hey, at least we still have Baby Yoda.
[Source: Box Office Mojo]
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