Star Wars: The Last Jedi jumps to the top of this year's charts

[William Gayde]

The Force is definitely strong with this one. Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the eighth installment in the series, has been climbing the charts at light speed following its weekend launch. According to Disney's estimates, the movie has earned $220 million domestically from showings between Friday and Sunday.

This puts it at the number-one movie debut for the year across America and Canada. The movie also comes in as the second biggest domestic debut of all time, second only to Star Wars: The Force Awakens from 2015.

Outside of North America, Disney says the movie has earned another $230 million which ranks it as the fifth largest opener of all time internationally. This doesn't include showings in China where the movie is set to debut next January 5th, and they represent the second biggest film market worldwide.

Lucasfilm, the studio that originally created Star Wars, was acquired by Disney for roughly $4 billion in 2012. Distribution chief Dave Hollis said that the "weekend that we're in is a byproduct of the foresight and vision from our CEO Bob Iger to bring Lucasfilm into the fold" and that "you can't help but be excited about the possibilities" of other things being added in the future.

Director Rian Johnson is set for a repeat to write and direct Episode IX slated for December 2019, following the Han Solo spinoff movie (Solo: A Star Wars Story) coming next summer.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/72352-star-wars-last-jedi-jumps-top-year-charts.html

 

[EEatGDL]

Let's see for how long they can hold it, I came out very disappointed and the audience tomatometer says I'm not an isolated case. I wish I was part of the people who could enjoy the whole movie and not just the last half hour only to go back to disappointed at the very end.

 

[cliffordcooley]

disappointed at the very end.

Are you sure that wasn't a cliffhanger for the next movie?

 

[seeprime]

Let's see for how long they can hold it, I came out very disappointed and the audience tomatometer says I'm not an isolated case. I wish I was part of the people who could enjoy the whole movie and not just the last half hour only to go back to disappointed at the very end.

Wow. With over 100,000 votes the movie only received a 56% audience approval, and 93% critics approval. My cutoff is normally 60% audience. So, I'll wait until this comes to the small screen and miss out on the sticky floors and other theater annoyances.

 

[Squid Surprise]

"Director Rian Johnson is set for a repeat to write and direct Episode IX slated for December 2019, "

That's too bad, since Disney has already announced that it will be J.J. Abrams directing.... has anyone let Abrams know he's been fired?

 

[Uncle Al]

Hmmmmmmmm ...... You know, everything eventually becomes "the same old remake" and I'm certainly seeing the trend with the Star Wars saga. I just don't think it has the staying power of a Star Trek at least not without some different theme's .....

 

[p51d007]

Sorry, skipping if for anything else, Mark Hammil....too much social justice, too much political
correctness, too much CGI, and, JJ Abrams/Disney.
Just with any "trilogy" or part 4,5,6 movies, they MILK it til it's skin & bones.
KILL it for 10 years.

 

[amstech]

Wow!
The RT thing is crazy, you guys ain't joking.

Audience score is at 56%! That's terrible.
Critic score is 93%? Hmmm.

 

[sac39507]

The movie sucked imo. I couldn't stand the acting and roles of Luke, Fin, and few of the other characters. This is another case of people thinking the movie is good because someone else says so.

Rogue One is still the best.

 

[mattfrompa]

I thought it was great. Not an instant classic but I found a lot to like. I don't care what the tomatoes or critics say!

 

[doomworm]

TLJ is a soulless mess of missed opportunities and poorly executed story choices. I got the impression watching it that Rian Johnson just had no idea what to do with the characters and was winging it the whole time. ***SPOILERS FOLLOW*** The Luke character is completely wasted and treated shamefully. Snoke is, well, a joke. Kylo goes from tantrum-throwing brat to Super Badass Leader in a stunningly hamhanded bit of story telling. The Finn side story is boring. They even managed to make Poe annoying. But the most glaring of all the problems is with Leia's character. What could have been one of her best moments, not to mention one of the most meaningful moments in Star Wars history, was completely squandered, instead given to another character we've never heard of. It had no emotional punch as a result. Yes, I know Carrie Fisher died. All the more reason to give her character a scene that would have had audiences sobbing like children.

 

[senketsu]

Just tell me there is no Jar Jar Binks and I'll watch this latest installment, in a month, a few months, half-year. Whenever, just won't go to the theatre

 

[RaXoR]

Hmmmmmmmm ...... You know, everything eventually becomes "the same old remake" and I'm certainly seeing the trend with the Star Wars saga. I just don't think it has the staying power of a Star Trek at least not without some different theme's .....

I think at this point we have a diverging universe. They had to connect the original trilogy in order to part from the Skywalker lineage. Next episode will finalize that divergence while repeating a few themes. This sets the series up for new events that will, hopefully, be fresh and exciting. TLJ was disappointing in many ways but I can see why they had to do the things they did.