With just a few days to go until the release of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Deadline is reporting that Lucasfilm’s first Anthology spinoff movie is tracking a massive opening at the worldwide box office, with estimates ranging from between $280 and $350 million.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice holds the record for the biggest worldwide debut of 2016 with $422.5 million, followed by Captain America: Civil War with $379.5 million. However, unlike those two movies, Rogue One won’t be able to count on China to give it an opening weekend but, as it doesn’t arrive in that market until January 6th.
Last year, Star Wars: The Force Awakens shattered the all-time record when it grossed a whopping $529.0 million around the globe during its opening weekend (which as with Rogue One, also didn’t include China).
Domestically, Rogue One is expected to gross between $130 and $150 million, giving it the second-best December debut after The Force Awakens, but as we’ve seen on several occasions this year, box office tracking can – and often is – very wide of the mark. One thing is certain though – it looks like Rogue One is going to be huge, and could well topple Captain America: Civil War for the highest-grossing movie of the year.
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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 set for release on December 15th in the UK and December 16th in the States, with 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) and Jonathan Aris (Sherlock).
Originally published December 10, 2016. Updated April 16, 2018.
