Australian Box Office Report: Rogue One is lightyears ahead at no. 1 on the box office ladder

It comes as no surprise that the highly anticipated Rogue One: A Star Wars Story should blitz the box office in its premiere week.  It made an epic $14.75m, which means that 3 out of every 4 tickets sold this week at the movies was for this film! 

It’s also had the second best opening weekend of the year, beaten only by Deadpool when it opened in February, which made $14.95m. In comparison to the previous film released from the Star Wars franchise, Stars Wars: The Force Awakens made $27.25m when it premiered in December last year.

This is a substantial dip in the numbers, and this was seen around the world, where its global opening weekend take was about US$290 million – almost half of Episode VII‘s US$529 million. None of this is particularly surprising given Rogue One is something of uncharted waters for the franchise; a standalone live-action film, outside of the Episodic series has never been attempted before. Analysts still expect the film to top US$1 billion worldwide, which will comfortably give Disney the top 5 spots on the Worldwide Box Office list for 2016, especially with openings in regions like China still to come. An impressive feat for a franchise film without recognisable characters at the fore.

Not even trailing close behind, but steady in second place, was Trolls, earning $1.82m, down 16% in sales from last week.  This will probably hang around in the top 5 for a few weeks now that the school holidays is in full swing.

Unfortunately, Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them, previously in top spot, fell to 4th position this week, earning $1.08m.  It’s safe to say there will be no regaining of no. one spot now that Rogue One has been released, following its impressive three week reign.

Aside from the fall of Fantastic Beasts, there were no other massive shifts in the top 5 films at the box office.  Office Christmas Party, which debuted last week, remains steady at 3rd place, earning $1.14m.  It’s not in the same vein at all of the films, at nos. 1 and 2, so its screen average earnings of $4,272 from the weekend just passed goes to show that it’s actually doing quite well, all things considered.

Mel Gibson’s Hacksaw Ridge also stands firm in 5th spot, taking in $289k at the box office.  It’s not long for the top 5 world, remaining at only 149 screens nationally.

The weekend coming up is Christmas week, so it’s geared up for warm and fuzzies, including Disney’s Moana, the musical La La Land starring Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling and the uplifting romance A United Kingdom, starring Rosamund Pike and David Oyelowo.

All figures from The Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia and Box Office Mojo

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