'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' Debuts On Rotten Tomatoes With Highest Score Ever For A Star Wars Movie

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is just rolling into theaters, but it seems to already have a leg up on [...]

By Matthew Aguilar - December 12, 2017 01:50 pm EST

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is just rolling into theaters, but it seems to already have a leg up on the other films in the franchise.

At least according to Rotten Tomatoes. Star Wars: The Last Jedi currently enjoys a 96% on the Tomatometer, a rating made up of 88 Fresh reviews and 4 Rotten reviews (92 total). So far the average rating is 8.3 out of 10, and that puts it higher than every other Star Wars movie released thus far.

In some cases, it isn't by much. For example, Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back sits at a 94% rating with a 97% audience rating. That is followed by Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope at 93% with a 96% audience rating. Surprisingly The Last Jedi falls a bit further down the list, behind Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (93%/89%) and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (85%/87%).

Star Wars: #TheLastJedi is currently the highest rated #StarWars movie at 96% on the #Tomatometer, with 83 reviews, presented by @Verizon pic.twitter.com/96UuB501QA
— Rotten Tomatoes (@RottenTomatoes) December 12, 2017

Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi lands on the list with an 80% score and a 94% audience score, but surprisingly Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith is not too far behind with a 79% score and a 65% audience rating. After that, it is what you'd expect, with Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones at a 66% percent and the audience ranking at 57%.

Lagging behind is the first prequel, Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, which holds a 55% rating and a 59% audience score. Well, actually, that's not the last one on the list if you count animated films. That honor goes to Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which holds a paltry 19% on the tomatometer with a 38% audience ranking.

It is surprising to see The Last Jedi higher than Empire Strikes Back, but it will be interesting to see if it can stay there once more reviews come in.

Update: Since this article went live the score has now dropped to 93%, putting it under Empire Strikes Back and bringing it into a tie with A New Hope.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is in theaters now.