2017 was another prosperous year for Walt Disney Studios after it bagged another billion in its Star Wars franchise. The latest film, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, ended the year with over $1 billion in global ticket sales and over $500 million domestically, surpassing Beauty and the Beast.
Expectations were high for the Rian Johnson film to go past the $1 billion mark during New Year's weekend and the final numbers did not disappoint. Analysts predicted that before 2017 ends, Star Wars: The Last Jedi would surpass Beauty and the Beast, which held the number one spot for the top grossing movie of the year.
Estimates from ComScore revealed that the latest installment to the Star Wars saga bagged $68.4 million from Friday through Monday. It raised sales for the United States and Canada to $533.1 million and pushed global sales to more than $1 billion. This is not even counting international sales from China, since the film has yet to open in the country on Jan. 5.
Disney already earned back the $200 million spent on making the movie even during the opening weekend. Star Wars: The Last Jedi earned $220 million. Beauty and the Beast, on the other hand, ended with $504 million for 2017.
"We actually had a really great end of year surge. Star Wars adding about a half billion dollars didn't hurt. But Star Wars didn't do this alone. It's not just about the big movies at the top, it's also about the smaller movies that provided a really great foundation. Every dollar counts," Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for ComScore said.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi had some tough competition over the weekend. Sony's Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle finished New Year's weekend with a whopping $66.5 million, an amount earned in a matter of four days. The sales upped the Columbia Pictures film's domestic total to $185.8 million and helped the film on the second spot. The comedy movie starring Jack Black, Kevin Hart, and Dwayne Johnson is expected to reach $300 million domestically.
This is the third year in a row that a Star Wars film dominated the domestic box office. In 2015, Star Wars: The Force Awakens ended with $34.5 million and the standalone movie Rogue One: A Star Wars Story hauled in $64.3 million in 2016. Regardless, both Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Beauty and the Beast helped Disney grabbed the throne as the top-grossing studio for 2017.
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