As expected, Disney’sThe Last Jedicrossed the $1 billion box office plateau this weekend, with itsthird box office winalso giving the movie the highest domestic gross of the year.Star Wars 8took in $52.4 million this weekend to claim the top spot for a third weekend in a row, which brought its domestic tally to $517.1 million, more than enough to surpass the $504 million set way back in March by Disney’sBeauty and the Beast. As of now,The Last Jedihas $1.04 billion at the worldwide box office, which is still not quite enough to surpassBeauty and the Beastand its $1.26 billion for the worldwide crown. But that will likely happen sooner rather than later.
Star Wars: The Last Jediis the fourth, and likely final movie this year to surpass $1 billion at the global box office, followingBeauty and the Beast($1.26 billion),The Fate of the Furious($1.23 billion), andDespicable Me 3($1.03 billion). The movie earned $63 million from 54 international markets this weekend, pushing its international take to $523.3 million, which helped put Disney over the $4 billion international plateau for the year. The movie is currently running 35% behind the numbers forThe Force Awakensin its third weekend, but also its running 36% ahead ofRogue One: A Star Wars Story. The international box office will likely get a big boost withChinese openingon January 5, the last global market for the movie to debut in.
The Last Jedidipped just 12% at the international box office from its Christmas weekend frame, with a number of markets posting sizeable increases including France (+37%) and Germany (+17%), while the EMEA region was 2% ahead of last weekend.The Last Jedi, fromdirector Rian Johnson, has become the top movie of the year in several international markets including Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Just like in North America,The Last Jediheld its top spot for the 3rd frame in a row in key international territories such as France, Germany, Spain and the UK.
The U.K. is still the top international market at $91.5 million, followed by Germany ($62 million), France ($45.6 million), Japan, ($40.4 million) and Australia ($35.1 million).The Last Jedi IMAXrun also marked its own milestone, crossing the $100 million global mark, becoming just the eighth movie ever to achieve that milestone, and the second fastest to reach it, just behindStar Wars: The Force Awakens. While it remains unclear as of now what the movie will top out at, it seems clear that the all time domestic mark of $936.6 million set byThe Force Awakensis in no jeopardy of being broken.
Despite the massive box office success, the movie has been much more divisive than most expected, withmillennials hating The Last Jedithe most. The movie was never expected to surpassThe Force Awakensand its numerous box office records, since that movie was the firstStar Warsmovie to hit theaters in 10 years, but it still seems that the fans being divided over certain issues hasn’t affected its box office take. Take a look at the full report over atDeadline.
