Star Wars: The Last Jediwill end today with approximately $220 million in the till, coming about $28 million short ofStar Wars: The Force Awakens, which holds the record for highest grossing opening weekend and highest grossing movie of all time, domestically speaking. Considering the fact thatThe Force Awakenshad years of build up anticipation after the disappointing prequels, this is a immensely impressive total forThe Last Jedi, which now has the second-highest domestic gross for its opening day and weekend in history. As far as the chronological order of release for theStar Warscanon, it bestedRogue One: A Star Wars Story’s opening weekend take by about $65 million.
It helps thatThe Last Jediis a genuinely lively and resonant film, despite its numerous shortcomings. WhereRogue Onefelt empty, tidy, and grossly manipulative,The Last Jediis thrilling in its blend of tones, wild psychological undercurrents, and rebellious attitude towards its own mythology and canonization. In this sense,The Last Jediis a more admirable feat than evenThe Empire Strikes Back, thoughEpisode V’s famed plot turns had far more dramatic punch than nearly anything inThe Last Jedi. Indeed,The Last Jedimight be one of the most divisive blockbusters to come along this decade, which speaks to the amount of risksRian Johnsontook in what will be the first of manyStar Warsmovies he will oversee.
The scope of Johnson’s fiscal and creative success here makes discussing any other movies in the top five somewhat of a joke. Animated movies did the best of the bunch, withFerdinandandCocotaking second and third place with $13.3 and $10 million respectively, due to a not-incorrect belief thatThe Last Jediis a bit too adult for some younger audiences.Wondercame in at fourth and brought in $5.4 million to tack onto the film’s already $100 million-plus domestic total, whileJustice Leaguenow holds the fifth spot with $4.1 million, bringing the DC film’s domestic total up to $219.4 million. I wouldn’t expect the top five to get back to business-as-usual until 2018 rolls in, consideringJumanji: Welcome to the Jungle,The Greatest Showman, andPitch Perfect 3are its major competition next weekend, as well as Oscar hopefulThe Post. All of them will struggle for a spot in the top five next weekend, but none of them will touchThe Last Jedi.
Here’s your top five at the box office for the weekend:
Weekend Domestic BO
Total Domestic BO
1. ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’
$220,047,000
2. ‘Ferdinand’
$13,325,000
$10,025,000
$150,810,896
4. ‘Wonder’
$5,400,000
$109,256,738
5. ‘Justice League’
$4,170,000
$219,456,347
