When it comes to the highest grossing sci-fi movies, the Star Wars saga is a consistent presence. However, they’re pretty far from equal when it comes to just how popular they were. As one might expect, the core nine installments of the saga tend to do better than spin-offs, but there has been one installment that has risen above some of its core saga brethren. Furthermore, as for trends, when it comes to the three various Star Wars trilogies, the first installment of the three tends to be a bonafide event, primarily because there has been a gap between the original trilogy and the prequel trilogy and the prequel trilogy and the sequel trilogy. But just what is the highest grossing Star Wars movie? Let’s unpack how each and every last one of them did.
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The rankings are based on worldwide haul adjusted for inflation. Note that, for the original trilogy (and now two of the three prequel trilogy installments), the adjustments were made based on their various release years as opposed to adjusting their entire gross based on the initial year of release.
12) Star Wars: The Clone Wars — $103,009,562
It was never going to be anything other than Star Wars: The Clone Wars. After all, it’s really just a feature length TV pilot put on the big screen. There was no urgency for the general fanbase at large to rush out and see it.
But even as the lowest grossing Star Wars movie, The Clone Wars was still a decent success. Its budget was a miniscule $8.5 million in 2008 dollars, and it octupled that. It certainly didn’t kill the show before it got started, as it was a success on Cartoon Network for several years (as was its final season on Disney+ years later).
11) Solo: A Star Wars Story — $508,237,433
When someone has put their stamp on a character as firmly as Harrison Ford has on Han Solo, there’s really no recasting them. Even if Solo: A Star Wars Story hadn’t experienced a pretty tough, price tag-elevating production, it still would have performed substantially worse than the remainder of the movies.
And it did perform poorly, serving as more than enough to put big screen Star Wars adventures on ice for eight years. And even then, The Mandalorian & Grogu is the continuation of a well-established IP, so it’s basically a lock. It’s easy to see how this came to be, as (the fun but not particularly revolutionary) Solo grossed just $393 million in 2018 dollars against a price tag hovering around $275 or $300 million. That’s a bomb.
10) Star Wars: Attack of the Clones — 1,180,366,754
Even though it features the beginning of the Clone Wars, Star Wars: Attack of the Clones is the lowest-grossing entry of the nine-film saga. It’s not hard to see why, either.
Star Wars: The Phantom Menace was a mega movie because fans had been waiting sixteen years to once more visit a galaxy far, far away, but it was far from beloved. Attack of the Clones was deemed by some to be a minor improvement but still plagued by the vast majority of the same problems. It just felt like a placeholder film en route to Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, aka not a genuine event. Regardless, it nearly sextupled its budget, so it was certainly a worthy investment.
9) Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker — $1,368,305,450
Star Wars: The Force Awakens was a juggernaut and Star Wars: The Last Jedi was another smash success, but the latter also threw the former’s narrative trajectory for a loop. And, as far as many fans were concerned, it made the final entry of the trilogy a less exciting prospect. There were too many big swings and bigger questions given letdown answers.
Things seemed to be on the path of course correction when J. J. Abrams was brought back on, but the damage was already done, and between its only moderately impressive trailer to the trilogy-low reviews, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was far from the event its two predecessors were. It still crossed $1 billion worldwide (unadjusted), but it also opened to $43 million less than The Last Jedi and kept that lower-earning trend going throughout its run. Furthermore, while that $1 billion gross looks impressive on paper, The Rise of Skywalker carried a gargantuan price tag of about $500 million, if not closer to $600 million.
8) Rogue One: A Star Wars Story — $1,432,711,563
While it wasn’t the money printer Star Wars: The Force Awakens was, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was just as impressive. It’s a spin-off prequel that focuses on boots on the ground conflict. All of its mysteries were already solved by a movie that had come out nearly 40 years prior.
And yet, thanks to its near-perfect recapturing of the original trilogy’s vibe (which looks even better after the sequel trilogy whiffed), Rogue One played extremely well. It quintupled its risky $200 million price tag, which would have made it the gold standard for Disney era Star Wars spinoffs even if Solo hadn’t killed that direction before it really got off the ground.
7) Star Wars: Return of the Jedi — $1.44 Billion
Like with the sequel trilogy, the prequel trilogy experienced diminishing returns. However, while The Rise of Skywalker was a disappointment, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi was a massive success, just like A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back.
To put its diminishing return into perspective, The Empire Strikes Back had a $30.5 million budget in 1980 dollars. It yielded a return of $401.5 million. That’s a multiple of about 13.2. Return of the Jedi had a budget upwards of $42.7 million in 1983 dollars and grossed $374 million worldwide during its initial release. That’s a multiple of about 8.8. Not as profitable, but hugely profitable, nonetheless.
6) Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith — $1.468
If you adjust its 2005 gross for inflation, the visually alluring and thematically moving Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith netted a whopping $1,413,616,088 in 2005. It then did better than expected with its 2025 re-release to the tune of $55.6, and that was just in a single week.
As you might have noticed, Revenge of the Sith bucked the trend seen in the other two trilogies. Whereas the original trilogy and sequel trilogy experienced diminishing returns, Revenge of the Sith found itself more of a cultural event than Attack of the Clones. After all, this was when Anakin became Darth Vader. It wasn’t just a trilogy-capper, it was arguably the most important installment of the entire saga. It was the one that fans had waited through two lesser movies to get to, and it didn’t disappoint.
5) Star Wars: The Last Jedi — $1,768,177,312
Remember how Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker had a price tag of about $500 million, perhaps upwards of $600 million? Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the film that killed off much of the enthusiasm for that film (not to mention Luke Skywalker), had a price tag of only $300 million.
Better still, its worldwide haul was about $300 million more (unadjusted) than The Rise of Skywalker, meaning it quadrupled its price tag whereas its sequel at best doubled its cost. The film may not have delivered what many Star Wars fans expected of it and didn’t perform nearly as well as Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but The Last Jedi was a major hit for Disney.
4) Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back — $1.8 Billion
While The Empire Strikes Back wasn’t playing well for a full year straight, it was still the number one movie of 1980 by a country mile. If you take its worldwide gross that year and adjust it, it made $1,582,611,650 in 2025 dollars.
But, as is the case with every installment of the original trilogy, its total isn’t relegated to its initial release. In 2025 dollars, the movie made a further $44,685,213 in 1982, $158,705,692 in 1997 via its special edition release, and about $15 million since that point.
3) Star Wars: The Phantom Menace — $1.965 Billion
Just like with the original trilogy, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace has been around long enough to warrant several releases, which is pretty wild for anyone who was old enough to see it as a kid back in 1999. Speaking of 1999, if you adjusted its gross then, it would have made $1.8 billion worldwide.
The Phantom Menace then got a 3D re-release in 2012, which netted $145,345,497 in 2025 dollars. Toss in $20.2 million in 2024 and The Phantom Menace, while highly disliked at the time, continues to be a major moneymaker.
2) Star Wars: The Force Awakens — $2.838 Billion
Star Wars: The Force Awakens was bigger than The Phantom Menace for several reasons. Most notably, it was the merger of old and new. It was a new era for the franchise, sure, but the marketing made clear that it was actively attempting to replicate the vibes of the beloved original trilogy.
So, on one hand, you were promised the chance to catch up with Han, Luke, and Leia after 32 long years. On the other hand, you were promised the chance to meet the new protagonists, not to mention the franchise’s newest villain, Kylo Ren, with his nifty crossguard lightsaber. The sequel trilogy may have gone off the rails afterwards, but The Force Awakens felt like a return to Star Wars’ good old days, and many went to see it repeatedly throughout its holiday season release.
1) Star Wars: A New Hope — At Least $3 Billion
Star Wars: A New Hope had a performance that’s pretty tough to unpack. After all, since its initial 1977 release, it has ended up in theaters numerous times. However, it’s certainly the most successful film of the saga, as between all of its releases it has sold an estimated 178.1 million tickets, whereas The Force Awakens sold 108.1 million.
Furthermore, while The Force Awakens‘ price tag was massive, A New Hope cost $11 million (which ironically was seen as a massive risk at the time). Compare that to the fact that, in 1977 dollars, it grossed $410 million worldwide. That would be about $2.2 billion today, even before factoring in its re-releases, most notably the 1997 release of the special edition, which made about $325.2 million in 2025 dollars. A New Hope has been printing money for nearly 50 years straight.
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Were you surprised about the highest and lowest grossing installments of the Star Wars saga? Let us know in the comments.
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