People really like Star Wars, which might be the understatement of the year. The space opera epic has millions of fans worldwide that flocked to the theater for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but that was a film that was a part of the main series. It was unknown how fans would take to standalone films that didn't focus on the Skywalker family, but now that trepidation seems unnecessary in hindsight. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is officially the second highest grossing Star Wars film domestically, with the same title worldwide not far behind.
According to figures collected over at Box Office Mojo, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story has made $477 million domestically at the box office. That makes it the second highest grossing Star Wars film based on domestic numbers, having recently passed Star Wars: The Phantom Menace ($474 million) for the number two spot. That means that the only film that stands above Rogue One is the absolute behemoth The Force Awakens with $936 million.
Factoring foreign markets, Rogue One earned $437 million, making its worldwide total $913 million. That currently sits it as the third highest grossing Star Wars film, but why settle for a bronze medal when you can easily grab the silver? The film only just opened in China, the second largest market, this weekend, so Rogue One won't sit still for long. We can expect Rogue One's gross to rocket up even further in the coming weeks, with the ultimate goal of surpassing Phantom Menace's gross of $1.028 billion. No one is expecting the spinoff to steal the number one spot from the truly herculean The Force Awakens, which holds a worldwide total of a little over $2 billion.
Rogue One is also the second highest grossing film made by production company Lucasfilm (can you guess which one is the first?). The film also currently holds the number eight spot in the list of highest grossing domestic movies of all time. Because the film only recently opened in China, it is likely to climb at least one more spot, surpassing Finding Dory for seventh place. In addition to that record, it is the fourth highest-grossing film from Disney's Buena Vista distribution and sits behind Finding Dory, The Avengers, and The Force Awakens -- all of which come from companies purchased by Disney, the king of good business decisions.
The box office for Rogue One is expected to grow even more, meaning these Star Wars standalone movies are here to stay. It's only a matter of time to see if future installments like Episode VIII can continue the hype or if viewership will drop, but for now, the galaxy far, far away is likely to own the box office for the foreseeable future.
