Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Tracking For Up To $150 Million Opening Weekend

12/13/2016 07:55 pm EST

In just a few days, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story will hit theaters to the delight of fans. The standalone will fill in a gap that's existed in the Star Wars canon for some time now. The movie is set to tell the story of the group of Rebels who stole the plans to the Imperial Death Star, and reviews for the film have been overwhelming positive so far. Now, the box-office predictions are in, and it looks like Rogue One is tracking to bring in lots of money on its opening weekend.

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According to Variety, the movie is expected to earn between $120-150 million domestically this weekend. Once Rogue One opens in the major foreign markets, the space opera could easy add another $150 million on top of its domestic box-office pull.

If these kind of numbers pull through, then Rogue One will have the second-highest December opening to date. The movie will fall just behind Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens which debuted to $248 million.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story hits US theaters December 16, 2016. 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 Onetells 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."

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is set between the events of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and shortly before the events of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. In the film, resistance fighters embark on a daring mission to steal the Empire's plans for the Death Star.

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Rogue One: A Star Wars Story stars Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Riz Ahmed, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Jiang Wen, Forest Whitaker, Mads Mikkelsen, Alan Tudyk and Jonathan Aris. The film is directed by Gareth Edwards and written by Gary Whitta and Chris Weitz, from a story conceived by John Knoll.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story hits theaters on December 16, 2016.

[H/T] Variety

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