Star Wars: The Last Jedi maintained a strong Force-grip on the box office this weekend, finishing No. 1 and taking in $100 million domestically. The film is now at a worldwide gross of $800 million, and still has yet to open in China (release is set for January 5, 2018).
According to The Hollywood Reporter, analysts expect the sequel to finish with around $1.6 billion by the end of its theatrical run, which would send it past Marvel's The Avengers as one of the top 5 highest grossing films of all time. While the film did suffer a 69% decline over the Christmas weekend and will finish short of The Force Awakens' $2 billion haul, THR notes that analysts attribute this to Christmas falling on a Sunday this year, (a day that is usually slow for traffic) rather than any sort of impact from the heated debate between fans online.
ComScore analyst Paul Dergaragedian also elaborated to THR that the monumental buildup for The Force Awakens was a factor in its massive success, and to compare the performances of both films would be unfair, given the circumstances. "The Force Awakens was an outlier, the likes of which we may never see again, and to compare any movie, even a Star Wars film, to that performance is unfair given the buildup to that film's monumental release. At a gross of nearly $750 million worldwide and a near even split between the North American and international gross after a little over a week in theaters, The Last Jedi is by any measure a great success, and the passionate debate over pros and cons of the film itself serve only to show the continued passion that fans have for this historic film series."
All in all, it seems Lucasfilm will be satisfied with another box office hit, at least until Solo: A Star Wars Story hits theatres this May. Let us know your thoughts in the comments!