While many Star Wars fans aren't emotionally prepared to witness the end of the franchise's Skywalker saga, box office analysts say that the latest interstellar adventure in a galaxy far, far away is more than ready to take their money.
According to early tracking, STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER is charting a course toward a $175-$200 million dollar domestic debut over the December 20-22 weekend. When compared to other installments of series' latest trilogy of films, you'll find that Rise of Skywalker is predicted to earn slightly less than its predecessor, The Last Jedi.
In December of 2015, The Force Awakens earned a record-shattering total of $248 million during its opening bow. Then in 2017, director Rian Johnson's much-maligned The Last Jedi had collected $220 million in domestic credits for its weekend-long launch. For the time being, Lucasfilm and Disney are tempering their expectations for the Rise of Skywalker launch, given the unwieldy nature of today's box office. In recent times, we've seen films like TERMINATOR: DARK FATE, X-MEN: DARK PHOENIX, and HELLBOY tank at the box office, each of which should have performed admirably but did not regardless of aggressive ad campaigns and plenty of coal being shoveled into the hype train.
Another reason why execs might be biting their nails with reagrd to Rise of Skywalker's performance is because Sony's JUMANJI: THE NEXT LEVEL opens in theaters a week earlier and is already expected to do major numbers when it hits. Personally, I think that STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER is going to do just fine, though I do admit that it might have some stiff competition considering the excitement around Dwayne Johnson's latest excursion into the jungles of Jumanji.
Will you be seeing STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER during the film's opening weekend? Are you excited for the Skywalker saga to come to an end or will you be kicking and screaming the whole way through? Let us know your thoughts and feelings in the comments section down below.