Disney’s $4 billion acquisition of Lucasfilm and Star Wars already began to pay for itself with the release of Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens and its $2 billion worldwide haul over the past year. The film brought back the saga film’s story following the Skywalkers, but the movie that followed did not continue that tradition. Instead, Lucasfilm ushered in their first non-saga installment with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. While there was no possibility of Rogue One matching The Force Awakens’ box office numbers, it has performed incredibly well.

Most recently, the film passed the $800 million worldwide mark after surpassing Captain America: Civil War as the second biggest film in 2016. Now it also holds the title of second biggest Star Wars film domestically.

Thanks to another strong week, Rogue One has now tallied $461 million domestically, officially giving it more than enough to pass Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace to be the second highest grossing film from a galaxy far, far away in this market according to Box Office Mojo. The film should have no problem crossing the $500 million milestone at the U.S. box office, but will come far shy of The Force Awakens’ record - as expected.

Rogue One should not stop climbing the ranks of Star Wars anytime soon either. The movie currently sits at $844.5 million worldwide, and even with Hidden Figures’ strong start, Rogue One will easily pass Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith’s $848.8 million by the end of the day. Next up for Rogue One then stands Episode I again, but this time with its $1.027 billion worldwide earning. Rogue One is just now debuting in China, which should go a long way in determining whether the standalone feature will become the second best performing Star Wars film in total.

If anything, this continually impressive performance by Rogue One should bode well for the future of Star Wars. From Disney and Lucasfilm’s perspective, they know the saga films will continue to make an incredible amount of money, but now they should be confident in exploring more obscure corners of the universe in these anthology films. The Alden Ehrenreich-led young Han Solo movie has the brand recognition in its titular character already to draw in audiences - and the same can be said for potential upcoming anthology films for Boba Fett or Obi-Wan - but hopefully they will continue to branch out and expand the universe by telling stories featuring brand new, original characters as well.

Source: Box Office Mojo

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