It was a pretty safe bet thatRogue One: A Star Wars Storywas going to be a big hit for Disney and Lucasfilm at the box office, but the numbers are really starting to look impressive. The first ever live-action, theatrically releasedStar Warsmovie to take place outside of the main Skywalker saga has won its third week in a row at the box office and that has pushed it into some very impressive territory.Star Wars: Rogue Oneis now officially the second highest-grossing movie at the domestic box office for 2016.
Comicbook.comis reporting that after winning its third week at the box office,Star Wars: Rogue Onehas now grossed an estimated $441 million. That means on the domestic side of things, it has officially passedCaptain America: Civil War. That movie wound up making a very impressive $408 million domestically and had a lot of appeal in the form of being a massive crossover Marvel event movie. Not to mention it was our introduction toTom Hollandas the new Spider-Man.Finding Dorystill remains the highest domestic earner of 2016, having brought in a very impressive $486 million.
Captain America: Civil Waris still going to very comfortably take the top spot worldwide for 2016. The movie wound up grossing $1.15 billion andRogue one: A Star Wars Storywasn’t going to realistically be able to overtake that number on a global scale in the short time it was in theaters during 2016. As of right now, the latest entry in theStar Warsfranchise is dancing around the $800 million mark after its third weekend in release, so it could very easily overtake the gross ofCaptain America: Civil Warwhen all is said and done. It will almost certainly cross the $1 billion mark sooner rather than later.
Finding Doryalso crossed the $1 billion mark worldwide, bringing in $1.02 billion, good enough for the number two spot for 2016. With that said, everything is coming up Disney. The commonality between these three movies is that theHouse of Mousewas responsible for all of them and ultimately, that means more cash for Disney. They recently became the first studio to ever cross $7 billionat the box officein a single year, largely thanks to the success ofRogue One: A Star Wars Storyin its first couple of weeks. Disney now has five of the top ten highest-grossing movies of 2016, withDoctor Strangesitting barely outside at number eleven. So to say they had a great year is a dramatic understatement.
In as much as making aStar Wars moviecan be a risk,Star Wars: Rogue Onewas definitely on somewhat uncertain ground before its release. Since it was taking place outside of the main saga films, it was unclear how well it would do. Nobody expected it to doStar Wars: The Force Awakensnumbers (which grossed nearly $1 billion domestically), but Disney has to be happy with the results. It should give them the confidence to try some different things in theStar Warsmovie universe in the future, which can really only be a good thing for fans of a galaxy far, far away. One this is for sure:Disney movies in 2017are sure to make even more money.
