Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Becomes Top Grossing US 2016 Release With Over $500m
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story passed $500 million at the domestic box office today, after coming [...]
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story passed $500 million at the domestic box office today, after coming close with a $13.36 million fifthe weekend that saw it rise to $498.45 million total. The movie, the first standalone film in the Star Wars franchise, is the second consecutive film from Lucasfilm to pass the $500 million mark in US box office, after 2015's Star Wars: The Force Awakens set a new record with over $900 million grossed in its run.
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That also put Rogue One in first place amongst all 2016 releases, as it passed Finding Dory's $486.3 million to officially win the year. Disney finished with four of the top five, as Rogue One, Finding Dory, Captain America: Civil War were 1, 2, 3, with The Jungle Book coming in at #5. Zootopia finished 7th on the year, with Moana and Doctor Strange at a respectable 11 and 12, all contributing to Disney's record-setting box office take on the year.
It's a big win for Lucasfilm, and for Disney. Lucasfilm, of course, was testing the grounds a bit with Rogue One, to see if the Star Wars franchise could do well in theaters without the Skywalker family to anchor it, and it did so in spades. Disney, meanwhile, has already far surpassed their investment in the house that Star Wars built. When they purchased Lucasfilm for $4 billion four years ago, They probably never thought they'd gross around $8 billion in films and toys/accessories in two years; yet, here we are.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is also now sitting at $983,319,734 worldwide, and should pass the $1 billion mark by the end of this week, it's fifth full week in theaters.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is in theaters now. Directed by Gareth Edwards, it's the first of the new standalone features from Lucasfilm and Disney, which take place outside the core "Skywalker Saga" of films noted by an Episode number. Rogue One tells the story of the small band of rebels that were tasked with stealing the plans to the first Death Star. The story spins directly off the opening crawl from the original Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope. In that crawl, it read: "Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire. During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire's ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR, an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet."
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