Star Wars: Rogue One Becomes One of the Highest Grossing IMAX Releases Ever
In honor of the upcoming premiere of Star Wars: Andor, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was rereleased in theaters this weekend. Andor is set to star Diego Luno in the titular role and it will serve as a prequel to Rogue One. Not only did the movie return to IMAX this weekend for the first time since it was released in 2016, but the screenings also included a sneak peek at Andor. Turns out, love for Rogue One is still incredibly strong because it has officially become one of the highest-grossing IMAX releases ever.
According to Collider, Rogue One hit 250 domestic IMAX theaters this weekend and grossed $1 million in ticket sales, which pushed its overall IMAX earnings to $105 million. This now makes Rogue One one of the 10 highest-grossing movies to be released in IMAX.
"Experience Rogue One: A Star Wars Story in select IMAX theatres. Plus, get an exclusive look at the new Disney+ Star Wars series, Andor! In a time of conflict, a group of unlikely heroes band together on a mission to steal the plans to the Death Star, the Empire's ultimate weapon of destruction. This key event in the Star Wars timeline brings together ordinary people who choose to do extraordinary things, and in doing so, become part of something greater than themselves," Fandango writes.
Tony Gilroy, who co-wrote Rogue One, is serving as the showrunner for Andor. Gilroy recently had a chat with Variety and talked about some original ideas for the series and explained why there won't be any "fan service." In fact, Gilroy told the outlet that folks don't need to be fans of Star Wars to enjoy the show.
"You should be able to watch the show and not give a shit about Star Wars ever, or [have ever] seen any Star Wars," Gilroy explained. "This show should work on its own." He added, "The hope, the dream, is that the really hardcore Star Wars community will embrace the show in a new way — that they'll be thrilled to have someone come in and completely uncynically get down molecularly in their world and treat it like a real thing."
"I wanted to do it about real people," Gilroy said of the show's story. "They've made all this IP about the royal family, in essence. It's been great. But there's a billion, billion, billion other beings in the galaxy. There's plumbers and cosmeticians. Journalists! What are their lives like? The revolution is affecting them just as much as anybody else. Why not use the Star Wars canon as a host organism for absolutely realistic, passionate, dramatic storytelling?"
Andor debuts on Disney+ on September 21st.