Weekend Preview: Jedi Will be the Last Film to Earn Top Spot in 2017

December 12, 2017

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

First a quick note, this is a weekend preview, not weekend predictions, because I’m looking more at the big picture and less at the actual weekend numbers. Star Wars: The Last Jedi opens this weekend, although if you are part of our international readership, it might have already opened where you live. We will be going over its daily results as soon as they start coming in. In the meantime, I’m a little more bullish than I was last week, as the reviews finally started coming in. The film’s Tomatometer Score is an impressive 93% positive with an average score of 8.3 out of 10. This is actually on par with or better than some Awards Season players and it is stellar for a blockbuster. The film is widely expected to fit somewhere between The Force Awakens and Rogue One and with a lot of people saying this is the best Star Wars film since The Empire Strikes Back, the higher end appears to be more likely than the lower end. Previously, $200 million was the target for the film’s opening weekend, but now $210 million to $225 million is within reach. Furthermore, it is expected to top that during its opening weekend internationally leaving the film with a slim chance at $500 million worldwide. On the downside, the film likely cost that much to make and advertise, so it needs to be a $1 billion hit worldwide to break even in a timely fashion. Fortunately, no one really thinks that will be a problem. In fact, a lot of people are assuming the film will earn $1 billion internationally, while most won't be shocked if it reaches $2 billion worldwide.

We will have a full prediction on Thursday, as well as full tracking of its daily domestic / international numbers throughout the Christmas / New Years holiday. It should be an exciting end to a rather disappointing year at the box office.

- Star Wars: The Last Jedi Comparisons

Filed under: Weekend Preview, Star Wars Ep. VIII: The Last Jedi, Star Wars