‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ Gross Tops $220 Million, Should Make Disney Lead Studio for 2017

December 17, 2017 by Douglas A. McIntyre

“Star Wars: The Last Jedi” lived up to the billing that it would post one of the largest openings in U.S. history. Its gross topped $220 million. It is estimated to have done $230 million overseas for the same period. The solid open will help the movie production arm of Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS).

According to Box Office Mojo:

Star Wars: The Last Jedi delivered on expectations, debuting with the second largest opening weekend of all-time and propelling the box office to the third largest weekend ever based on estimates. In an attempt at counter-programming, Fox’s Ferdinand got off to a bit of a slow start against the might of Star Wars as well as the continued strong performance of Pixar’s Coco as it fell below Mojo’s expectations, though the studio is optimistic when it comes to the film’s future.

With an estimated $220 million, Star Wars: The Last Jedi delivered the second largest opening weekend ever behind only Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which debuted with $247.9 million back in 2015. Last Jedi got off to a strong start on Thursday night with the second largest preview gross ever of $45 million and became only the second film to ever gross over $100 million on opening day resulting in the second largest opening day ever, second largest single day, second largest Friday and joins Force Awakens as the fastest films to reach $100 million.

The news is particularly good for Buena Vista, the movie production arm of Disney. Through the December 10 weekend, it trailed only Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) in terms of studio market share at 18.4%, compared to Warner’s 20.1%. “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” likely will put Disney into first place.

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