Last night, the countdown towards the release ofRogue One: A Star Wars Storyfinally came to an end, with Thursday night preview screenings. Some lucky fans were surprised with a special treat, as directorGareth Edwardsshowed up to introduce the event, along with starsFelicity Jones,Riz Ahmed,Diego LunaandAlan Tudyk. If you weren’t one of the lucky fans in attendance at this one screening last night, thankfully there is video of this surprise introduction.
Riz Ahmedposted the video on hisInstagram, which showsGareth Edwardsintroducing the cast members, who were all received with thunderous applause by the audience. The screening location hasn’t been named, but it’s clear that the theater was packed, which isn’t surprising, since the early box office number are indicating this could already be a huge hit. The early box office projections put this film at around $130 million but now it may debut even higher.
Earlier today, we reported thatRogue Oneearned an impressive $30 million during Thursday night preview screenings. While this figure certainly reveals that the movie is getting off to a good start, it still falls way short of the all time record, set almost exactly one year ago today, withStar Wars: The Force Awakens' $57 million tally. Last year’s highly-anticipated adventure would go on to break several box office record, including the highest three-day opening weekend ever, $247.9 million. It would go on to earn a record-breaking $936.6 million domestically, but it couldn’t breakAvatar’s $2.7 billion global record.
A few days ago, another report revealed thatRogue Onewas eyeing a $350 million worldwideopening weekend, which would be the third highest global debut of the year, behind Warner Bros.‘Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice($422.5 million) and Marvel Studios’Captain America: Civil War($379.5 million). As of now, Disney Pixar’sFinding Doryholds the top spot at the domestic box office with $486.2 million, withCaptain America: Civil Warcurrently holding the worldwide crown with $1.1 billion. There are only two other movies to cross the $1 billion milestone this year,Finding Dory($1.027 billion) andZootopia($1.023 billion), with all three released by Disney-owned companies.
From Lucasfilm comes the first of theStar Warsstandalone films,Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, an all-new epic adventure. In a time of conflict, a group of unlikely heroes band together on a mission to steal the plans to theDeath Star, the Empire’s ultimate weapon of destruction. This key event in the Star Wars timeline brings together ordinary people who choose to do extraordinary things, and in doing so, become part of something greater than themselves. AfterRogue One, Disney will roll out aHan Solospin-off, starringAlden EhrenreichandDonald Gloveras Han Solo and Lando Calrissian, which is set for release on July 16, 2025. The studio is also planning a third spin-off for 2020, which has been rumored to center on Boba Fett. Take a look atRiz Ahmed’s Instagram video from a screening ofRogue One: A Star Wars Story.
