‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ Box Office: Second Biggest Thursday Ever, Could Score $100 Million Opening Day
The Force is definitely strong withStar Wars: The Last Jedi. Aside from being a creative success withwildly positive reviews, it’s also well on its way to becoming a box office juggernaut, pulling in $45 million domestically in Thursday night preview screenings. That’s still not quite at the level of 2015’sStar Wars: The Force Awakens, which reinvigorated the franchise after a decade-long slumber, but analysts are predicting thatThe Last Jedicould earn as much as $100 million on its opening day alone.
Deadlinereports thatThe Last Jedi’s $45 million in preview earnings is the second highest preview gross of all time, behind onlyThe Force Awakens(whichcurrently holds the recordwith $57 million in that department). For even more comparison, $45 million is 55% ahead of last year’sRogue One: A Star Wars Story, which only pulled in $29 million in domestic previews.
But enough preview talk: what could the film earn in its first full day at the nationwide box office? Analysts are predicting that it could score between $95-100 million, which could very well translate into an opening weekend that reaches $210 million domestically. That would still put it behindThe Force Awakens(which holds the weekend record with $247 million), but it might be enough to best the second and third place holders,Jurassic World($208 million) andThe Avengers($207 million).
Just for comparison’s sake,Justice League– a movie that reportedly cost $300 million and certainly one that Warner Bros. needed to be a massive hit – didn’t even crack $100 million over its entire opening weekend. Look, I realize that nothing is going to come close toStar Wars, which is back at the height of its powers right now. But I just wanted to pass that along so you could have some context of the size hit we’re talking about here.
And while theStar Warsbrand is a draw on its own, it’s still cool to see a great filmmaker likeRian Johnsonat the helm of a movie that’s performing this well. His previous movie, 2012’s sci-fi filmLooper, only earned $20 million in its opening weekend on its way to a $66 million domestic total for its whole theatrical run. This movie is going to launch him into a whole new stratosphere, and as a fan of his work before he headed into a galaxy far, far away, I hope we get to seemore Rian Johnson original projects in-between his newly-announcedStar Warstrilogy.
Earlier this week, analysts were predicting thatThe Last Jedicould finish its opening weekend withas much as $425 million worldwide. We won’t know how accurate that is until Monday, but we’ll keep you updated with moreStar Wars The Last Jedibox office analysis in the coming days.
