Dec 23, 2019
The "Jedi Business" segment returns! Every Monday for the next few weeks, I'll be talking about the performance of The Rise of Skywalker at the box office, though this time around the focus is going to be a little bit different.
There's been an assertion floating around for the last two years that dissatisfaction from some quarters with The Last Jedi would have a negative effect on the box office of all Star Wars movies going forward. When Solo: A Star Wars Story came out, I spent a lot of time looking at the numbers and the extenuating circumstances, and concluded that there were a lot more significant reasons for Solo's showing at the box office than any Last-Jedi effect.
Well, if The Rise of Skywalker had received better critics' reviews than it did, then this discussion would be a whole lot easier. As it is, the movie (at recording time) is on track for a $175-$180 million opening, which is below both The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, but above Rogue One. The sequel Saga movies declined in successive opening weekends, but for the comparative, the prequel Saga movies each outperformed the previous one released, so that Revenge of the Sith had the biggest opening weekend of the three.
Also, the movie received a B+ from CinemaScore, while its predecessors all scored A and A- grades. And PostTrak has The Rise of Skywalker at 4 out of 5 stars and 81% positive overall - which is behind The Force Awakens (90% positive overall, 4.5 out of 5 stars), Rogue One (91% positive overall, 4.5 out of 5 stars), and The Last Jedi (89% positive overall, 5 out of 5 stars). These aren't exactly hopeful numbers for The Rise of Skywalker beating The Last Jedi at the box office, which it was expected to do based on prequel history.
But there are signs of hope, which I'll talk about on the podcast today, as well as discuss the reveal about something Finn said (or didn't say) in the film (mild spoiler, with ample warning in the recording). Punch it!
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