Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker becomes Disney's seventh billion-dollar movie of 2019

[Shawn Knight]

In brief: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker has become Disney’s seventh billion-dollar earner of 2019 and the ninth overall film to cross the threshold for the year. With the milestone, The Rise of Skywalker becomes the fifth Star Wars film to join the billion-dollar club.

The third and final film in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, The Rise of Skywalker launched on December 20 to much fanfare (and with the help of a massive marketing push). The flick got off to a solid start and has managed to carry that momentum well into the New Year. According to Disney, the movie crossed the $1 billion barrier on Tuesday in its 28th day of release.

The full 2019 billion-dollar earners list is as follows:

• Avengers: Endgame ($2.7 billion)
• The Lion King ($1.6 billion)
• Frozen 2 ($1.3 billion)
• Spider-Man: Far From Home ($1.1 billion)
• Captain Marvel ($1.1 billion)
• Toy Story 4 ($1.07 billion)
• Joker ($1.06 billion)
• Aladdin ($1.05 billion)
• Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker ($1.001 billion)

Disney is responsible for seven of the nine billion-dollar earners of 2019 – that’s the good news. The bad news is that as we settle into 2020, it will be difficult to match or beat that record anytime soon as two of Disney’s top franchises – Star Wars and Avengers – closed out major storylines last year.

Nothing is impossible, mind you, but it could be a while before we see another magic year like 2019 from Disney.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/83581-star-wars-rise-skywalker-becomes-disney-seventh-billion.html

 

[Vrmithrax]

And yet you hear doomsayers shouting out "cinema is dead, nobody goes to the theater any more" from the rooftops every year. I often marvel at their warped perspective of the world, and wonder how they live their life day to day.

 

[VitalyT]

The audience gets dumber every year.

 

[3volv3d]

And yet you hear doomsayers shouting out "cinema is dead, nobody goes to the theater any more" from the rooftops every year. I often marvel at their warped perspective of the world, and wonder how they live their life day to day.

I wonder how many people do go to see movies at the cinema. People from my generation don't go to the cinema as often I don't think. Except maybe for franchises such as with Star TrekWars. A franchise where there are long time followers, so it covers many generations. Bound to get a large number.

Also kids from Gen Z or X or 0 or whocares, are spoilt. They don't understand money doesn't grow on trees, and parents don't want their kids to be the only ones left out, but I am sure many begrudge paying £20 for a film, that you can own for half that or zero that. But prices have gone up which must bridge some of that gap.
And in England you also have so many baby maker mums who want a big house and no job, so they have loadsa kids who they can take with their chav cheques. So these are also govt. funded movies. We do our part.

Maybe people want to go to the cinema while they still can now that the worlds on fire, and flooding. It's like the end of days out there, so enjoy the last few years while you can, and go see Toy Story 5: Andys funeral.

But on the flip side where the MPAA and RIAA say that people will just download and hurt the industry, and they talk out their butts. People who download music were seen to buy 1.5x as much as those who hadn't downloaded and sampled the music prior.

 

[ShagnWagn]

Why do we even reference dollar amounts any more? With more people in the world, combined with inflation, it is a farce to reference strictly dollar amounts. B movies, 100 years from now, will be "billion dollar movies".

What counts? The percentage of the population. That is where you will impress me. This will tell you truly how successful a <insert any media or object> is.

How about we take the original release of Star Wars... multiply it by the percent increase in population plus inflation. Then we can compare it to this movie and have an accurate comparison.

 

[Squid Surprise]

And yet you hear doomsayers shouting out "cinema is dead, nobody goes to the theater any more" from the rooftops every year. I often marvel at their warped perspective of the world, and wonder how they live their life day to day.

Well... "real cinema" might be dead... of those 9 movies, only one might be called an "original movie"... Joker... and even that is really part of an established franchise (DC Comics) and could be categorized as a sequel or prequel (I disagree, as it's actually a really unique take on the genre).

As for the other 8...
Avengers: Endgame - sequel
The Lion King - remake
Frozen 2 - sequel
Spider-Man: Far From Home - sequel
Captain Marvel - sequel (albeit at least there is a new character)
Toy Story 4 - sequel
Aladdin - remake
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - sequel

 

[Ravalo]

What am I doing here? I dont even watch movies lol

 

[Lionvibez]

I haven't given Disney a single dollar for any of these new stars wars movies very proud of myself.

The audience gets dumber every year.

Yup McDonalds also sells the most burgers on the planet I would hardly call that high quality food.

And yet you hear doomsayers shouting out "cinema is dead, nobody goes to the theater any more" from the rooftops every year. I often marvel at their warped perspective of the world, and wonder how they live their life day to day.

High volume of sales doesn't always mean quality it just means popular.

 

[ET3D]

I haven't given Disney a single dollar for any of these new stars wars movies very proud of myself.

The question isn't whether you paid money, but whether you watched them. If you did, then you have no reason to be proud of yourself.

 

[Lionvibez]

The question isn't whether you paid money, but whether you watched them. If you did, then you have no reason to be proud of yourself.

lmao I've seen the first which was a download. And I got free tickets to the 2nd one and I won't really waste anytime on the last one.

And I find it highly amusing for you to tell me I have no reason to be proud of myself like you get to make that decision.

Pretty funny dude.

 

[3volv3d]

I realise that I am commenting more on the first post than the actual article but...

It's not just about the fact the new generations seem to be a gimme gimme greedy culture.

I am sure that with the population increasing there must be more people adults and kids alike who will see movies sure.

But giving a dollar figure means jack to me. It just reminds me of when I read some article about the Spice Girls, had beaten the Beatles sales, and were the best selling group in the UK. Oh you are F ing having a laugh. You have to consider how many sales within a population from the 60's to that of the late 90's and the fact we are globally connected far easier than we were then. So The Beatles are still the better.

And overall we are talking about a few Disney films again with a massive fanbase. So that is why these score big. People are willing to see these on the big screen, and with the awful marvel movies, they aren't really that great, its more a feat of CGI, and how many stars you can fit on one screen at a time.

This ain't an achievement. Disney is going for an easy win, cause they won't risk making something new. All their stuff is as seen above remakes and sequels, and from books and comics, fairy tales. No originality.

 

[Lionvibez]

I wonder how many people do go to see movies at the cinema. People from my generation don't go to the cinema as often I don't think. Except maybe for franchises such as with Star TrekWars. A franchise where there are long time followers, so it covers many generations. Bound to get a large number.

Also kids from Gen Z or X or 0 or whocares, are spoilt. They don't understand money doesn't grow on trees, and parents don't want their kids to be the only ones left out, but I am sure many begrudge paying £20 for a film, that you can own for half that or zero that. But prices have gone up which must bridge some of that gap.
And in England you also have so many baby maker mums who want a big house and no job, so they have loadsa kids who they can take with their chav cheques. So these are also govt. funded movies. We do our part.

Maybe people want to go to the cinema while they still can now that the worlds on fire, and flooding. It's like the end of days out there, so enjoy the last few years while you can, and go see Toy Story 5: Andys funeral.

But on the flip side where the MPAA and RIAA say that people will just download and hurt the industry, and they talk out their butts. People who download music were seen to buy 1.5x as much as those who hadn't downloaded and sampled the music prior.

I was born at the very end of Gen X and I rarely go to see movies these days anymore.

Movie has to be epic and not just hyped and over marketed for me to spend money. Not to mention the kids and cell's can get really annoying. Won't even touch on the ridiculous ticket prices.

I also cut the cord last year aswell after having cable TV for many years.

But giving a dollar figure means jack to me. It just reminds me of when I read some article about the Spice Girls, had beaten the Beatles sales, and were the best selling group in the UK. Oh you are F ing having a laugh. You have to consider how many sales within a population from the 60's to that of the late 90's and the fact we are globally connected far easier than we were then. So The Beatles are still the better.

Agreed boss the details matter.

Anyone who would think the spice girls can touch the beatles...

 

[ET3D]

And I find it highly amusing for you to tell me I have no reason to be proud of myself like you get to make that decision.

Well, glad I amused you. But really, not spending money on something should really be way down on the list of things to be proud of, and not spending money on something you don't like is, well, just what anyone would do? I could understand being proud on not seeing that in principle, because you dislike something about Disney, but you watched two of them, decided you didn't like them that much (though enough to see the second), then didn't watch the third. Well, okay. Glad you found something to be proud of.

 

[wiyosaya]

And yet you hear doomsayers shouting out "cinema is dead, nobody goes to the theater any more" from the rooftops every year. I often marvel at their warped perspective of the world, and wonder how they live their life day to day.

My wife and I won't see anything in the theaters these days; that is mainly because of the audience in the theater. With adults that act like jerks and adults that bring kids to the movies when those kids cannot sit still for more than 1-minute, the theater experience is not worth paying for in our opinion.

Not only the people, but the multiplex theaters these days are complete crap, IMO. For me, the noise from adjacent theaters is yet another downside, not to mention that my home sound system, even being only 5.1, easily exceeds the quality of the sound systems in the vast majority of theaters in my area. There are only two theaters in my area that have decent sound systems, however, one of those suffers badly from adjacent theater noise, and the other suffers from the crowd problem.

Then, I you not, there is one chain in my area where walking on the uncleaned floors in that chain's multiplex cinemas is akin to walking on fly paper for humans. Talk about a cheap way of getting people to continue to watch movies in those theaters. ?

I haven't given Disney a single dollar for any of these new stars wars movies very proud of myself.

Neither have I. I've gotten them from my local library! ?

 

[Vrmithrax]

I wonder how many people do go to see movies at the cinema. People from my generation don't go to the cinema as often I don't think.

Well, over $11 billion in US box office revenue for 2019, somewhere over the $42 billion worldwide, so obviously there's a lot of them. Just pointing out that you hear people lamenting how nobody goes to the theaters anymore, but that is a stupid amount of money that proves otherwise. I just found it humorous, that much money pouring in and hearing people preaching that "the end is near" because it was 4% lower than the record year of 2018, or some such nonsense.

Of course, dollars spent does not equate to quality of product, as others pointed out.

And I'm in my 50s, but I hit the theater fairly often, when there is something good or interesting that I want to see in huge format. That hasn't always been the case, though, just the last few years I've started going more since local theaters went to reserved ticketing and recliner seats (and the theater is kept in good/clean condition). Wasn't much of a fan of the sticky floor free-for-all general admission version in the past.

 

[fps4ever]

I read an article where it still won't match the other two movies in the series for dollars and probably won't get Disney their money back purchasing from Lucas for around 4 billion dollars. Let that sink in on what could have been and the awful story line of the series arch.

 

[Mr Majestyk]

Pretty poor effort to wrap up the series IMO. It was enjoyable enough, but a very linear and formulaic storyline, with no original ideas, no branching, no backstory; they could have done so much more. Rogue One stands head and shoulders above any of the last 6 Stars Wars movies. It's getting the money because people will want to see how it ends no matter what after all this time. If it were the start of the series they'd be in a lot more trouble.

 

[Lionvibez]

I read an article where it still won't match the other two movies in the series for dollars and probably won't get Disney their money back purchasing from Lucas for around 4 billion dollars. Let that sink in on what could have been and the awful story line of the series arch.

Disney is only now getting started with their Starwars IP.

Do you really think these 3 movies is the end of it.

They will easily make that 4 billion back already close and will surpase it, you are just doing this way to early. Check again in 5-10 years I bet you disney will have cleared 10+ billion from that investment.

 

[Squid Surprise]

I read an article where it still won't match the other two movies in the series for dollars and probably won't get Disney their money back purchasing from Lucas for around 4 billion dollars. Let that sink in on what could have been and the awful story line of the series arch.

Lol... apparently you don’t understand how Disney operates.... the movie revenue (which will easily surpass 4 billion anyways) is only the tip of the iceberg... there’s toys, shirts, video games, etc.... they’ve almost certainly already made their money back already - and if not, they’ll have it soon.

 

[wiyosaya]

Pretty poor effort to wrap up the series IMO. It was enjoyable enough, but a very linear and formulaic storyline, with no original ideas, no branching, no backstory; they could have done so much more. Rogue One stands head and shoulders above any of the last 6 Stars Wars movies. It's getting the money because people will want to see how it ends no matter what after all this time. If it were the start of the series they'd be in a lot more trouble.

Personally, I think the animated series The Clone Wars and Rebels stand head and shoulders above all other SW material.

 

[Mjswooosh]

Lots of narcissistic edge lords in here super proud of themselves for not spending money on movies or liking Disney or whatever. Mmmm-Kay. I get the sentiment about how corpiratized and sterile many of the Hollywood products have become, but theres still good stuff out there. If people enjoy Star Wars and liked the Last Jedi, more power to em.

 

[Irata]

Lol... apparently you don’t understand how Disney operates.... the movie revenue (which will easily surpass 4 billion anyways) is only the tip of the iceberg... there’s toys, shirts, video games, etc.... they’ve almost certainly already made their money back already - and if not, they’ll have it soon.

Last I heard Star Wars toy / merchandise sales weren't doing that well. I think it was a big mistake to tick off the fans as much as Disney did.

Looking around, you could see tons of Star Wars shirts after ep. 8 (got several for my kid) but that has gone down.

Same when looking at the Star Wars toy section in stores. Shelf space for Lego Star Wars sets has been greatly reduced compared to a few years ago just from what I can see where I live.

For me, ep 9 was actually fun to watch (as compared to ep 8) but nothing special or outstanding.

Still went to see it twice because my kid wanted to, but we have a small local movie theater within walking distance with reasonable ticket prices, the people who run it are nice and you can get food, good coffee, wine, beer, cocktails... while you watch the movie (and as far as tech is concerned, they are up to date)

Stopped going to the big multiplexes a while ago because they are just too expensive all things considered .

 

[BobHome]

I realise that I am commenting more on the first post than the actual article but...

It's not just about the fact the new generations seem to be a gimme gimme greedy culture.

I am sure that with the population increasing there must be more people adults and kids alike who will see movies sure.

But giving a dollar figure means jack to me. It just reminds me of when I read some article about the Spice Girls, had beaten the Beatles sales, and were the best selling group in the UK. Oh you are F ing having a laugh. You have to consider how many sales within a population from the 60's to that of the late 90's and the fact we are globally connected far easier than we were then. So The Beatles are still the better.

And overall we are talking about a few Disney films again with a massive fanbase. So that is why these score big. People are willing to see these on the big screen, and with the awful marvel movies, they aren't really that great, its more a feat of CGI, and how many stars you can fit on one screen at a time.

This ain't an achievement. Disney is going for an easy win, cause they won't risk making something new. All their stuff is as seen above remakes and sequels, and from books and comics, fairy tales. No originality.

I remember when Disney used to hire Imagineers.
"No originality" seems to be their--and the industry leaders--norm nowadays, unfortunately.

 

[Squid Surprise]

Last I heard Star Wars toy / merchandise sales weren't doing that well. I think it was a big mistake to tick off the fans as much as Disney did.

Looking around, you could see tons of Star Wars shirts after ep. 8 (got several for my kid) but that has gone down.

Same when looking at the Star Wars toy section in stores. Shelf space for Lego Star Wars sets has been greatly reduced compared to a few years ago just from what I can see where I live.

For me, ep 9 was actually fun to watch (as compared to ep 8) but nothing special or outstanding.

Still went to see it twice because my kid wanted to, but we have a small local movie theater within walking distance with reasonable ticket prices, the people who run it are nice and you can get food, good coffee, wine, beer, cocktails... while you watch the movie (and as far as tech is concerned, they are up to date)

Stopped going to the big multiplexes a while ago because they are just too expensive all things considered .

OK, let's look at the numbers then - strictly profits from the films NOT including DVD/BluRay, merchandise, etc: --> Calculated by subtracting budget from gross.

Since 2012 (when Disney bought LucasFilm), Disney has released 5 Star Wars films.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (profit of about $1.8 Billion)
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (profit of about $850 Million)
Star Wars: The Last Jedi (profit of about $1.1 Billion)
Solo: A Star Wars Story (profit of about $110 Million)
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (profit of about $720 Million and climbing)

Total Profits: $4.58 Billion!!!

And it's only going to increase!

I think we can safely conclude that Disney made a pretty shrewd deal here... this doesn't include any of the TV series, clothing, toys, etc...

Yes, merchandise sales had been doing poorly for the past couple of years (most blame Solo), but they still rake in a couple of hundred million a year minimum... that's another billion or 2 added to our total...

And let's not forget games, DVD/BluRay, and the inevitable re-releases "special editions" etc...

Star Wars is pure gold, and even Disney won't be able to ruin it any time soon...

 

[3volv3d]

I remember when Disney used to hire Imagineers.
"No originality" seems to be their--and the industry leaders--norm nowadays, unfortunately.

Well, originality is a super hard thing to find, sure some people find a way to make things different, but original.
Humans spend most of their lives playing chinese whispers. Schools regurgitate words and numbers, text from books, and then their is your day to day lives and tv, internet, media. All things that have come from someone else, and someone else before that.
You will be lucky if you have an original idea in your life time, something that hasn't been thought of by Turok, from Egypt in 72 BC...
You learn something new everyday, new to you, but not original.
More and more you will see things have been done upteen times before. Sequels are usually dogs, reboots, remakes. Cinema is mostly a snoozefest, it is only when someone gets their timing right to find a way that relates to current peoples trends of moods and tastes that it makes any relevant difference.

Time is relative.