LOS ANGELES — “I find your lack of faith disturbing.”
Darth Vader said it. In recent weeks, as the news media questioned the management of the 42-year-old “Star Wars” franchise, the Walt Disney Company’s senior leaders thought it.
Saturday brought some vindication: The ninth installment in the series, “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” collected about $90 million in its first day and a half in domestic theaters, putting the film on a course to take in around $190 million by Sunday, box office analysts said.
“The Rise of Skywalker,” which cost roughly $400 million to make and market, will collect an additional $200 million (or more) in international release over the weekend, analysts said. The film, the final chapter in the Skywalker saga, was released in every country except for Vietnam, South Korea and the Philippines. It will arrive in those markets next month.
A domestic opening in the $190 million range would place “The Rise of Skywalker” behind its series predecessor by about 13 percent. “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” arrived to $220 million in December 2017, going on to collect $1.33 billion by the end of its run. Some long-in-the-tooth franchises fall 20 percent or more from chapter opening to chapter opening.
“The Last Jedi,” which was poorly received by some die-hard fans, had little competition during its first weekend in theaters. In contrast, “The Rise of Skywalker” faced a sturdy “Jumanji: The Second Level” (Sony Pictures), which was expected to collect about $25 million in its second weekend, for a new domestic total of around $100 million.
The other major movie released on Friday, “Cats,” proved to be a nonfactor. Universal Pictures was hoping that the much-maligned musical, directed by the Oscar-winning Tom Hooper (“The King’s Speech”), would scratch out at least $15 million in ticket sales. Instead, the movie, produced by Britain’s elite Working Title Films, was on pace to arrive to about $7.6 million in ticket sales, according to Deadline.com, a trade news site.
[Read our “Cats” review.]
Universal is still hopeful that “Cats” will find an audience — sort of like “The Greatest Showman” did in 2017, arriving to $8.8 million that year but ultimately taking in $174.3 million. But audiences liked “The Greatest Showman,” which received an A grade in CinemaScore exit polls. “Cats” got a C-plus.
“Cats” cost roughly $100 million to make, not including marketing, which started in July with a widely discussed trailer.
“The Rise of Skywalker,” directed by J.J. Abrams and produced by Kathleen Kennedy, received a B-plus grade from CinemaScore. “The Last Jedi” and its 2015 predecessor, “The Force Awakens,” each got an A. “The Rise of Skywalker” also had weaker reviews than the last two “Star Wars” installments.
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Mr. Abrams and Ms. Kennedy had to satisfy a seemingly impossible array of demands: wrapping together myriad plotlines, catering to the fans who threw a fit over “The Last Jedi,” standing out amid a flood of “Star Wars” offerings — including Baby Yoda and “The Mandalorian” on Disney Plus and the opening of Galaxy’s Edge theme park attractions.
Disney said that it had booked “The Rise of Skywalker” into 4,300 cinemas in the United States and Canada, including 415 IMAX screens and 3,200 3-D locations. Theaters typically keep about 55 percent of ticket sales, with the balance going to studios. But Disney will receive about 65 percent of ticket sales for “The Rise of Skywalker,” in keeping with the onerous contracts it negotiated for previous “Star Wars” films.