Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Crosses $500 Million at Domestic Box Office

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker hit theaters last month, and quickly reached the $1 billion club. The movie hit the big mark worldwide a couple of weeks ago and now it’s hit another milestone at the domestic box office. It was recently reported by BoxOfficeReport.com that The Rise of Skywalker reached $500 million in North America. While the new movie was met with mixed reviews and dropped from 1,200 theaters sooner than expected, it’s still a monetary success and joins the ranks of multiple 2019 Disney movies to earn $1 billion. Avengers: Endgame, The Lion King, Frozen 2, Captain Marvel, Toy Story 4, and Aladdin all hit the milestone, making last year an insanely successful one for the company.

Currently, The Rise of Skywalker is up on Rotten Tomatoes with the worst critics’ score for a live-action Star Wars movie, earning a surprising 52%. However, the film is fairing better with moviegoers and currently has an 86% audience score. ComicBook.com’s own Patrick Cavanaugh called the movie “a mixed bag of delights and frustrations that largely succeeds” and gave it a 4 out of 5 rating.

Despite the mixed reviews, The Rise of Skywalker still managed to walk away with three Academy Award nominations this year. The movie is up for Best Original Score (John Williams), Best Sound Editing (Matthew Wood and David Acord), and Best Visual Effects (Roger Guyett, Neal Scanlan, Patrick Tubach and Dominic Tuohy).

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker stars a returning Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Kelly Maire Tran, Lupita Nyong’o, Domhnall Gleeson, Joonas Suotamo, Billie Lourd, and Greg Grunberg. New cast members include Naomi Ackie, Richard E. Grant, Keri Russell, and Dominic Monaghan, and the returning veteran actors are Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Billy Dee Williams, and Ian McDiarmid as the Emperor. According to Abrams, Leia is featured in the film using unreleased footage of Carrie Fisher from Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is now playing in theaters everywhere.