If the Star Wars franchise has proven anything it's that audiences will follow it pretty much anywhere. Books, comics, toys, animated series, Slurpee cups, anything and everything sells and it's likely to be that way forever. Still, there's a cloud of mystery surrounding Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and what kind of box office the film can expect. 'The Force Awakens' was huge, but it was part of the traditional narrative that most know and love. 'Rogue One' is a spinoff set in an earlier era and traditionally these kinds of movies tend to do less business.
Disney apparently realizes this, as CEO Bob Iger revealed in a conference call that expectations are high for 'Rogue One', but not quite as high as they were for 'The Force Awakens', which earned over $2B...
“We never felt it would do the level that Force Awakens did. The level of interest [in Rogue One] is as high as it was for Force Awakens.”
I have a feeling Iger is playing the refs here a little bit by lowering expectations. He went on to say that Disney is averaging roughly $800M between their Marvel and Star Wars features, which is absolutely insane. He also confirmed that plans are in place for Star Wars movies through 2020 with discussions beginning on what comes next...
“I had a meeting yesterday with Kathy Kennedy and we mapped out — well, we reviewed — the ‘Star Wars’ plans that we have ’til 2020. We have movies in development for ‘Star Wars’ ’til then, and we started talking about what we’re going to do in 2021 and beyond.”
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story opens December 16th. [Variety]
