Rogue One: A Star Wars Story tops global box office while Will Smith's Collateral Beauty sinks
Rogue One had the second highest December opening weekend ever
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Your support makes all the difference.Rogue One: A Star Wars Story has been met with rapturous applause by many fans, some going as far to say the spin-off is the best Star Wars film since Empire Strikes Back.
Unsurprisingly, Rogue One has already made heaps of money, opening to $155 million in North America, and earning $290.5 million worldwide despite having not opened in China or South Korea, matching expectations.
That huge number makes the spin-off the second largest December launch of all time, only falling behind last year's Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
One Box Office analyst told Variety of the accomplishment: “This is the king of all franchises. No other franchise is even close.”
For the past year, Disney has consistently downplayed their expectations for the Gareth Edwards film, telling analysts they did not expect the same $247,966,675 success of The Force Awakens.
And yet, despite being a gritty, war-focussed film, Rogue One has exceeded expectations, no doubt giving Disney further confidence in their upcoming Han Solo spin-off film. How Rogue One did in UK cinemas will be announced shortly.
Meanwhile, also released in US cinemas this week was the Will Smith led Collateral Beauty: the film was ravaged by critics and only managed to make $7 million on a $36 million budget.
With Smith’s films Focus, After Earth and Concussion having all underperformed at the box office (Suicide Squad being the only exception) questions around the actor’s popularity have been raised.
Rogue One is currently showing in UK cinemas, while Collateral Beauty reaches UK cinemas 30 December.
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