It looks like box office for 'Rogue One' will be almost as impressive as 'The Force Awakens'
The movie, opening December 16, is projected to earn over $130 million at the domestic box office its first weekend, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
If it holds, that would be the second-highest opening of all time in December, with 2015's "The Force Awakens" still comfortably topping the list with its $247.9 million first weekend.
If everything goes as planned, Disney will have shown that its strategy to release "Star Wars" movies before Christmas Day, typically the day when all the major releases have opened in the past, was an ingenious move.
In a weekend long thought to be when audiences are too concerned with holiday shopping, "The Force Awakens" pre-Christmas Day rollout led to incredible word of mouth (not to mention the millions in marketing) that helped the film become a global record-breaking box-office titan. The movie ended its theatrical run earlier this year with over $2 billion globally.
Though Disney has stuck to its talking point that it doesn't expect "Rogue One" to do the business of "The Force Awakens," the projections show the movie will still make a loud bang.
Disney is expected to break last year's industry global box-office record, $6.89 billion for Universal, and earn over $7 billion in worldwide ticket sales by the end of 2016.