'Star Wars The Last Jedi' Suffers Massive Drop In Second Box Office Weekend
"Star Wars: The Last Jedi" suffered a massive drop in earnings on its second weekend bringing in an estimated $68.5 million at the box office. This is a steep 68.9 percent drop from its $220 million debuts which will see the second film of the third trilogy finishing its three-day weekend at $745.4 million worldwide and $365.1 million domestic.
According to Forbes, the film lost more money between its first and second weekends than any film ever "by a lot." Its $151 million drop is a greater gap than the $121 million record set by "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2" between its first two weekends.
The sharp drop also puts the film in Forbes' "$100 Million Losers Club" made up of films which opened so high and then dropped so hard that they made over $100 million less on their second weekend than their first such as "Avengers: Age of Ultron," "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice," and "Jurassic World."
There is a myriad of reasons for the drop in earnings namely more kid-friendly competition, the loss of nostalgia factor due to killing off a number of iconic characters, and just plain fans that aren't too keen on how the franchise turned out. However, there's still a chance for the sequel to reassert itself before the New Year begins for real on Jan. 12, 2018.
Industry insiders still peg the "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" to cross the $1 billion mark worldwide with at least $600 million in domestic earnings. That being said, it's still not "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" money which earned over $2 billion worldwide.
This means that the drop in earnings shouldn't be too worrying for Disney which is still in the process of recouping its $4 billion dollar investment in Lucasfilm. With at least two feature films still on the table, the media giant won't be looking to sell its prized franchise anytime soon.