Just after theStar Wars 9 final trailerdebuted,The Rise of Skywalkeris already breaking records just shy of two months ahead of its debut in theaters. Disney and Lucasfilm recently released pre-sale tickets for the highly-anticipated chapter in the beloved sci-fi series, to coincide with the debut of the final trailer. As it turns out, demand to see the movie is extremely high, as it has already shattered a record set byAvengers: Endgameearlier this year, which bodes very well for its prospects at the box office.
Ticket retailer Atom Tickets is reporting that director J.J. Abrams’The Rise of Skywalkersold more tickets in the first hour of the company’s history than any other movie by a wide margin. The previous best was set byAvengers: Endgameand the company says Episode IX beat its record by a massive 45 percent. According to the company, the top five movies with the best first hour of pre-sales also includesInfinity War,The Last JediandRogue One. All of those movies went on to become massive hits.
Granted, reported figures for a single hour ofStar Wars ticketsgoing on sale may not be the best metric to determine eventual box office success, but the fact that theEndgamerecord was obliterated so handily is telling for a few reasons. For one, it’s no secret thatThe Last Jediwas divisive. But there is a vocal minority online that would have us believe the movie nearly derailed the franchise. Certain so-called fans were calling for boycotts of future Disney-era Star Wars movies and things got ugly. Yet, these pre-sale numbers would dictate that visible toxicity had little effect, if any, on the mass movie-going public. People want to see how the Skywalker saga is going to end.
Another angle is purely looking atbox office prospects.Avengers: Endgameis now the highest-grossing movie of all time, with $2.79 billion worldwide. For the sake of comparison,The Force Awakensgrossed just over $2 billion andThe Last Jedidid $1.3 billion. Given the pre-sale figures, we can expect a monster opening weekend from Episode IX. Will it get anywhere nearAvengers: Endgame? Probably not. Star Wars doesn’t play as well in certain international markets, such as China, and this franchise is geared to be a little more front-loaded. Still, it’s easy to see, if things keep up, how this entry could sail by that $1.3 billion figure.
Much of this could depend on critical response and word of mouth. If critics like it, that will help initially. But critics lovedThe Last Jediand fans were mixed on it all across the map. If the word of mouth leans more positive, this movie could have much longer legs and get closer to that rare $2 billion range. Either way, this is an excellent start to the end of an era for Lucasfilm.Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalkeris set to hit theaters on December 20. This news was previously reported byDeadline.
