As expected, the Force is strong with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story at the box office, as Disney and Lucasfilm’s first Anthology movie has debuted with $29 million in Thursday previews in North America.
Rogue One’s Thursday opening is the biggest of the year so far, topping Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice ($27.7 million) and Captain America: Civil War ($25 million). It is expected to gross a further $60 million today.
The movie began its worldwide rollout on Wednesday (including a Thursday opening here in the UK), and had earned $33 million from international markets by close of play last night.
Box office tracking for Rogue One has suggested a domestic opening weekend of $130 – $150 million, with between $280 million and $350 million worldwide.
SEE ALSO: Read our review of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story here
From Lucasfilm comes the first of the Star Wars standalone films, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, an all-new epic adventure. In a time of conflict, a group of unlikely heroes band together on a mission to steal the plans to the Death Star, the Empire’s ultimate weapon of destruction. This key event in the Star Wars timeline brings together ordinary people who choose to do extraordinary things, and in doing so, become part of something greater than themselves.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is out now and features a cast that includes Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything), Diego Luna (Milk), Ben Mendelsohn (The Dark Knight Rises), Donnie Yen (Ip Man), Jiang Wen (Let the Bullets Fly), Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland), Alan Tudyk (Con Man), Riz Ahmed (Nightcrawler), Genevieve O’Reilly (Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith), Jimmy Smits (Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones), James Earl Jones (Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope), Valene Kane (The Fall), Alistair Petrie (The Night Manager), Warwick Davis (Star Wars: Episode IV – Return of the Jedi), Ian McElhinney (Game of Thrones) and Jonathan Aris (Sherlock).
