Looking at the records for 2016, it's pretty clear that Disney has reigned supreme in the box office tallies.
Globally, the four highest-performing films of 2016 were all Disney titles, but now Deadline reports that Rogue One: A Star Wars Story has now passed the billion-dollar mark over the weekend. This makes the first Star Wars spinoff the 13th Disney film to reach $1 billion, the third Star Wars film to reach $1 billion and the No.1 film at the US box office for 2016.
Remember the four highest-performing films at the global box office? Rogue One is now the fourth film.
Breaking down the data, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story performed at its best in the UK, taking in just under $80 million, followed closely by China where it was said to have underperformed against expectations. Still, it managed to scoop up $61.3 million there so it obviously wasn't a complete waste.
More than anything, it shows that in countries where Star Wars has some kind of resonance or nostalgia-factor, these films perform particularly well. The film series was not shown in China until very recently, owing to strict censorship policies there. As such, it doesn't have the same cultural impact that it would have here or in the US.
It's good news for Disney and Lucasfilm, who are now looking at the successes of Rogue One and will likely be expecting winning figures from the eventual Han Solo prequel and whatever else they've got up their sleeves.
Via Deadline
