Star Wars: The Last Jedi Tops Empire Awards Nominations

Star Wars: The Last Jedi leads Empire Magazine‘s 2018 Empire Awards with the most nominations.

The eighth installment of the long-running Star Wars saga racked up nine nominations, including a nod for the coveted “Best Film” award.

Leads Daisy Ridley and John Boyega are tapped for Best Actress and Best Actor, respectively, with franchise newcomer Kelly Marie Tran garnering a nomination for Best Female Newcomer.

Writer-director Rian Johnson is nominated for Best Director for his first visit to a galaxy far, far away.

The Last Jedi is nominated for Best Visual Effects, Best Production Design, and Best Costume Design — up against Marvel Studios heavyweights Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Thor: Ragnarok — and has earned nominations for Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy and Best Film, where the blockbuster competes against Wonder Woman, Thor: Ragnarok, Get Out, and Call Me By Your Name.

Awards are voted on by readers, who have the opportunity to vote until February 2.

Disney expressed interest in campaigning for Academy Award recognition for leads Daisy Ridley and Mark Hamill, and the film has been submitted for consideration in a variety of technical categories.

John Williams’ The Last Jedi score is among the film scores in contention to land a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Score. The Academy unveils its official nominees January 23.

The Last Jedi will cross $600 million domestically this weekend, with the Disney-produced blockbuster expected to end its global box office haul with $1.3 billion.

Forbes’ report says such numbers puts Jedi ahead of Disney’s animated Frozen to become the eighth highest-grossing movie of all time, just behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.

The latest Star Wars installment is the biggest domestic earner of 2017, but its international numbers puts it in fifth place behind The Fate of the Furious ($1.01 billion), Wolf Warrior 2 ($867 billion), Despicable Me 3 ($770 million), and Beauty and the Beast ($759 million).

Disney will release The Last Jedi on 4K UHD Blu-ray and Blu-ray disc in March, the home release boasting two hours of bonus content including deleted scenes.