'Last Jedi' Falls Short of 'Force Awakens' Opening
by EG
There's no arguing with the fact that Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi had a huge opening weekend. Its single-day takes on both Thursday and Friday were the second biggest ever for those days, and its weekend total is also going to be history's second biggest. But The Last Jedi is coming in second in all these categories to its predecessor, The Force Awakens. The Last Jedi is going to see a drop of about 12 percent from The Force Awakens' opening weekend haul, an indication that there might be a limit after all to the franchise's record-breaking power.
Disney and Lucasfilm's Star Wars: The Last Jedi is headed for a massive $215 million-plus North American launch after delivering $104.8 million on Friday
So far, Last Jedi is trailing only one film — Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which nabbed $119 million on its first Friday for a record domestic launch of $247.9 million on the same weekend in 2015. No other film besides these two have ever crossed $100 million in a single day.
And Force Awakens, bestowed with an A CinemaScore by audiences, is one of only three films to open to $200 million or more domestically. The others are Universal's Jurassic World ($208.8 million) and fellow Disney title The Avengers ($207.4 million). Some box-office observers believe Last Jedi has a shot at matching those two.
Last Jedi earned $45 million in Thursday-night previews, likewise the second best showing in history behind Force Awakens ($57 million), not accounting for inflation. Last Jedi's Imax previews generated an estimated $5.3 million.
Globally, the franchise's eighth installment is projected to gross $425 million-plus through Sunday to secure one of the five best worldwide openings of all time, not accounting for inflation.
Last Jedi is pacing well ahead of last year's stand-alone film, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which opened to $155.1 million domestically. Globally, Force Awakens and Rogue One went on to to earn $2.1 billion and $1.1 billion, respectively.
Last Jedi began its international rollout on Wednesday in 14 material markets, followed by an additional 34 material markets on Thursday. It opened at the top of each international market (except Turkey and Korea), bringing its two-day international total to an estimated $60.8 million and its global total to $105.8 million.
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.
Did you see The Last Jedi this weekend? Tell us what you thought of it in the comments below.