Perhaps not surprisingly, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is the least profitable entry in the new Star Wars Trilogy, according to a new report. It’s no secret that Episode IX lagged behind both The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi at the box office, but a wide variety of factors come into play when determining a movie’s overall financial viability. Taking a deeper look at the numbers, in this case, is quite revealing.
Per the report, which looked at a range of factors including marketing costs, production budgets and home video sales, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker earned around $300 million in net profits. It’s estimated that director J.J. Abrams’ finale to the Skywalker saga came with $275 million in production costs, the most expensive of the new trilogy, and $627 million in total costs. All told, the movie earned $1.07 billion at the global box office, including $515.2 million domestically, and $558.9 million internationally. It’s noted that merchandise revenue is not being accounted for in terms of profit, as those figures are closely guarded by Disney. Though, that would certainly add quite a bit to any movie within this franchise.
For comparison’s sake, 2015’s The Force Awakens pulled in a staggering $780.1 million in profits. The sequel marked the return of the beloved franchise after a decade away. The hype led it to $2.06 billion at the box office, including a record $936.6 million domestically. It’s estimated that production cost Disney $259M, with $776.5 million in total costs. Even with such a massive expense sheet, the huge box office total and home video sales helped justify Disney’s $4 billion purchase of Lucasfilm in 2012.
As for director Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi, the middle entry in the trilogy came with a comparatively low $578.3 million total cost, $200 of which went to the production. Because those numbers were much lower than Episode VII and Episode IX, The Last Jedi earned $417.5 million in profit against $1.33 billion at the box office. This movie left behind something of a complicated legacy, as it proved to be a divisive entry in the franchise. It seemed, in many ways, the final entry in the trilogy was a response to that mixed reaction. Ultimately, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker proved to be divisive as well.
Be that as it may, Star Wars has been insanely profitable for Disney. Rogue One, it’s reported, earned $319.6 million in profit, with Solo being the only loser of the bunch. After everything was totaled, director Ron Howard’s expensive standalone lost $77 million. Because of that, Disney largely moved away from spin-offs, with the Obi-Wan Kenobi movie being turned into a series that is now in the works for the Disney+ streaming service, and the Boba Fett movie scrapped entirely, at least for now. This news comes to us via Deadline.
