Rogue One Becomes The Second Highest Grossing Star Wars Film of All Time in the US! Moderate Success in Chinese Debut.
China continues to be the one place on this vast globe that still treats Star Wars as if it’s just any other franchise. It is a country where US based sci-fi releases often do very well, but due to the unfamiliarity of the property in the country, it has underperformed in relation to the rest of the world so far. It seems Rogue One is not the movie to break that trend.
Rogue One pulled in $32.2 million in China this weekend. It is a little more than half of what The Force Awakens did in its first weekend last year, which gives it a similar drop over the last release as was seen domestically. Hopes had been that increased familiarity from Episode VII’s release and the presence of actors familiar to Chinese audiences such as Donnie Yen and Jiang Wen would have increased that number a bit, but it seems the studio will have to settle for a good return as opposed to a great one this time.
Elsewhere, Rogue One continues raking in the big bucks. In the US, the first “Star Wars Story” edged out “Hidden Figures” in weekend estimates, but after the final figures were release Rogue One was bitten just by $1 million, missing to take 1st place for a fourth week in a row with $21.9m. Internationally (including China) it pulled in $56.6m getting it above the $900m mark worldwide.
Domestically, the weekend put Rogue One at $477m. This makes Rogue One now the second highest grossing Star Wars film of all time in the US passing Episode I yesterday. It is expected that over the next week it will pass Finding Dory to become the highest grossing film released in 2016. With a projected WW take over $1B and a domestic over $500m by the time the film leaves theaters, it is an understatement to call the first standalone Star Wars film a success. With a firm hold in the all-time domestic top 10 and a strong showing internationally, it is safe to say that Lucasfilm will continue releasing these Star Wars stories well into the future.
Sources: Variety, Box Office Mojo
“moderate success in chinese debut”? It bombed harder than Force Awakens
bombed is a tad harsh
I’d say it’s completely inaccurate.
The Chinese like real hard core senseless action like F&F. All these episode movies are too much for them. Oh and they only like their own big-time directors despite how much the movie plot sucks. Really a pity, since it prevents their directors from evolving.
It is no surprise that Star wars don’t make as much money. The Chinese market has a totally different mentality from others.
I reckon they like the sort of movies you describe because they aren’t really watching the movie, they’re yapping and looking at their i-phones. The cinema experience in asia can take getting used to for a westerner.
Flipping it around, do you think American/Western audiences should care much for Chinese directors? SW is a decidedly American thing, so I think it’s understandable that it will always be challenging to sell it to another country and different culture.
Bombed huh? Not sure you quit understand what that even means. You might want to check again before spewing drivel such as this.
For some inexplicable reason the chinese just dont like Star Wars.
Disney should stop pandering them so hard.
Well, it is a new franchise in China, so it’s not so bad really. TFA was the 13th biggest film in Chinese history, and that ain’t half bad for a new franchise that’s never been seen on Chinese screens.
What about Jurassic World? That was also a new franchise… Pacific Rim? Jungle Book?
R1 is the the second movie screened in China just one year after TFA and it opened significantly worse, despite the big chinese names and the grand marketing.
There isnt much Disney can do. The chinese either just dont get Star Wars or they just simply dont like it for some reason.
China is predominantly a collectivist nation, less individual-oriented like in Western countries. I think this could have an affect on how audiences there perceive rebellious single characters and the idea of a rebellion in general.
Actually I see the opposite. The chinese are actually extremely selfish people and they probabaly don’t care about a band of rebels who work together selflessly.
if you’re gonna pander to china you got to go all in and set the final third of the film there for no apparent reason like transformers 4 did.
That’s a pity about China, as Disney really did try hard to make it more likeable with Donnie etc. You just can’t beat nostalgia and the power of Gen “40-something” !!
I loved Rogue One, and I’m even prepared to say it was better than TFA, as most aren’t. I’m just so glad that Disney has had such good turnover and that the franchise lives on. It’s never been a better time to be a Star Wars fan !
Do you think it’s okay to reshape a movie to accommodate certain demographic groups you desperately want to see watch your movie? It’s pathetic.
Yep, but in the end (unfortunately as always) it’s all about making money. If China is on board with the franchise that’s a lot of bums on seats both now, and for future movies.
It’s still not acceptable and it wasn’t always like this, Lucas didn’t give two cents about targeting specific demographics and Disney knew it. That’s why it was their top priority when they acquired the rights, they knew there was a lot of potential viewers Lucas didn’t never tried to force his movies on them.
“Lucas didn’t give two cents about targeting specific demographics”
Which is why he shoehorned Sam Jackson and his Grape Soda lightsaber in Episode II. Ugh.
What do you mean? You can’t have black characters in Star Wars? John Boyega is obviously at oken black guy in TFA, nobody got this feeling with Mace Windu. Besides, Lucas didn’t make him a bumbling hapless sidekick.
Token black characters aren’t main characters like Finn was.
No, Jar Jar (played by the black man) was a bumbling hapless sidekick 😉
Jar Jar wasn’t black, he was an alien
The actor was, which. And he was a bumbling, hapless sidekick, which was your point. Stay on target.
He was a bumbling hapless sidekick but not a black guy in space unlike John Boyega who is the stereotypical “12 years a slave”/ Chrick Rock comic relief, butt of every joke. Even Jar Jar Binks had some personal victory, he was even bombad general by his king. What about Finn? He ends up in coma and doesn’t even taste the victory. He is the polar opposite of Mary Sue.
Finn finds something worth fighting for which he didn’t have with The First Order. He completed an arc.
Rey’s pussy is worth getting killed on StarKillerBAse? That makes him even more pathetic. He completed a full circle from zero to zero
Can we ban this person yet? This is uncalled for.
Thank you.
? That’s not true either
It’s true.
Sure.
This is bad and cynical view (Also, he cast Lando b/c of the backlash from no black people in ANH).
How did they reshape it? By casting Asians? Tread carefully, friend.
You probably think these two asians characters are totally random and wasn’t a organized attempt to capture the chinese audience. You’re clueless.
No, I know exactly why they were cast, but you said “reshape”, which implies those roles were not Asian and were later changed to be Asian, which, you have no clue is true or not.
So you are the clueless one here.
Explain how it was reshaped.
It doesn’t mean it was later changed, they could have decided to have chinese characters from day one, no matter what story they would tell. It shapes or reshapes the story toward having token asians in the movie. Donnie Yen using a bamboo stick in a Star Wars universe is ridiculous and shows an amazing lack of imagination and shame from the creators.
Look at Finn in TFA, the character doesn’t make any sense and could be removed without problem, Rey would have had her journey along Poe Dameron instead. It’s clear they wanted a black guy to advertise everywhere how Kathleen kennedy and JJ Abrams are progressive. Suggesting Lucas wasnt, although he’s married to a black woman. On the other hand, I bet JJ and KK ‘diversity’ friends can be counted on the fingers of one hand. How many executives at Disney and Lucasfilm are from ethnic background since KK took over? I bet none.
http://lucasfilm.com/our-team
Grasping, friend. Grasping and changing your answers.
“It’s clear they wanted a black guy to advertise everywhere how Kathleen kennedy and JJ Abrams are progressive. Suggesting Lucas wasnt, although he’s married to a black woman.”
OMG. Are you insane? No one thought that the casting of Boyega was a shot at Lucas! Except you. Which is telling.
The Story Group is very diverse. You are so adorable with your hatred.
The way they advertised the diverse cast was an indirect critic about George Lucas, meaning there wasn’t enough colours and females. Everyone knows it wasn’t true but that was just psychological manipulation. Otherwise they wouldn’t even have talked about it and staged a fake anti Boyega movement on twitter. This technique is a classic.
“The way they advertised the diverse cast was an indirect critic about George Lucas, meaning there wasn’t enough colours and females.”
Weren’t enough colors? Geez, hide your bigotry a little better. And that’s your perception of it. No one in their right mind would take that way. Diversity is a hot trend right now and they wanted to make sure they were with the times.
Fake Anti-Boyega movement??? Your constant complaining about him is proof they didn’t need to stage it!
If diversity is a hot trend, why is Finn a stereotypical black hapless sidekick worthy of a Jim Crow caricature. The only thing he didn’t do was tap dancing for the white girl
He isn’t. The role was written color-blind and cast based on who did best.
Ohhh, because JJ Abrams said so, it must be true I guess, let’s delegate our own judgement to those directly involved in the movie.
Because everyone said so. Let’s see: do we trust everyone involved who actually knows what they are talking about or a online troll who clearly is so very mad that this movie didn’t cater to his white men only agenda?
Decisions, decisions…it’s a close one!
Apparently attendances are down overall due to really bad smog, hopefully they can recover with word and mouth
And yet China loved the horrendous Warcraft movie. Go figure.
More familiar with it
and terminator genesis.
Sorry, you spelled it correctly. That’s simply not cool enough to be a movie title.
it was cool enough for phil collins. 😉
And Avatar.
Just a massive market
Not really that surprising; China produces a lot of fantasy movies and ‘historical epics’ (which are more fantasy oriented than historical)- they don’t really make sci-fi movies, presumably because there’s not much demand there. Although I read somewhere they were making a movie of Cixin Liu’s ‘the three-body problem’ which hopefully will be good.
by the way, I thought Warcraft was not as awful as I’d expected… and it had Travis whatshisname playing Rangar Lodbrok in all but name.
I totally liked the warcraft movie T_T
Yes, it’s funny, especially when you consider the Warcraft movie didn’t attempt to seduce them in any way while Kathleen Kennedy doesn’t hesitate to bring chinese kung fu artists in the Star Wars lore, only to get some taste of that Yuan she’s craving for so much. It’s always nice to see ass kissers get slapped in the face.
It attempted to seduce them by having the name “Warcraft”.
And you can’t say that the cast of Rogue One was bad. So even if they were pandering, it was still well-executed.
Yes, the cast weren’t bad, but the tokening was obvious. On the other hand Finn was also very stereotypical and his acting was forced but I guess it’s the fault of JJ Abrams who must have told him to act like Chris Rock
comedy relief character…I understand you, I would also prefer Finn to be more serious..
It shows you the contempt the writers actually have for diversity although they like to plaster everywhere that they are more progressive than any other movie.
You must not have ever seen chris rock.
I mean Chris Tucker. I’m surprised John Boyega didn’t appear dressed up in drag in the movie, maybe in episode 8.
Doesn’t even require response.
B.c the game is hugely popular there and more familiar to them.
NOt only China. In Europe big success as well. So far the only market it didn´t do well is the US…..
Re: “presence of actors familiar to Chinese audiences such as Donnie Yen and Jiang Wen”
Those casting choices for Roque One was obviously to appeal to Chinese/Asian markets, as well as a very diverse race/ethic cast in-general for wider appeal.
Honestly was surprised that with TFA that Rey wasn’t cast using an Asian actress, as Disney desperately wants to bust-out in China+ market with Star Wars franchise. I’d be surprised if Han Solo film doesn’t include a different race/ethnicity for Han’s potential love interest, as well.
It’s all about expanding markets/appeal & ROI!
thought his love interest was that black woman from the comics?
True, but this is younger Han Solo. I’d imagine a Bond-level lady-in-every-cantina vibe. 😉
Not from what we have seen so far.
Where is my Jabba the Hutt gangster film? Perhaps we will get that element when they finally make an Obi-Wan film.
I expect to see a lot of that in the Han Solo movie. Have you seen the Rogue One Ultimate Visual Guide by Pablo Hidalgo ? There are so many interesting underworld type characters in the crowds of Jeddah which they single out in the book, the Han Solo movie could be quite interesting if they do it right.
chinese eat almost extinct rhinoceros horn and shark flippers in hope to get a boner, what else can you expect?
Great! And after careful strategical analysis and days of self meditation and exploration I have deduced that it has also become my 3rd favorite Star Wars film.
I should probably do something like that. I’m still debating if if third on my list should be Rogue One or Force Awakens. Cause I really enjoyed both
Use the force..it’ll come to you lmao
Gotta wait for the blu ray. You gotta live with it for while.
You’re right! How can I forget such a vital step!!!
Just (for me anyway) need distance from the hype
B.O. receipts are misleading. It comes down to tickets sold (AFI). That’s the chart with the complete story. Based on that, R1 has only sold as many tickets as AOTC. Maybe a little more. It may sell as many as ROTS before its run ends.
#5 if you account for ticket price inflation…
which is boring so don’t