The latest film in the ever-growing Star Wars franchise has not only wowed critics, but smashed the global box office.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was released last week, bringing in the largest Thursday 'preview' figure in the United States for 2016, with US$29 million.
That number more than doubled after the film's first 24 hours, ending last Friday with over US$71million in box office takings.
That places it as the 12th-biggest single-day grosser of all-time, just behind the penultimate film in The Twilight Saga.
Unsurprisingly however, Rogue One didn't come close to surpassing last year's Star Wars film, The Force Awakens. The seventh film in the main franchise broke records with its US$119 million single-day gross in December last year.
Unlike Rogue One, which introduces an almost entirely new cast of characters, The Force Awakens brought back the main stars from the original trilogy, acting as a direct sequel to 1983's Return of the Jedi.
Relying on returning characters and familiar themes, The Force Awakens was a certain box office success, whereas Rogue One was more of a risk for Disney.
A series of reshoots to much of the film's third act late into production indicated they may have been worried. But director Gareth Edward's flick has proven detractors wrong, becoming one of this year's biggest openings and heading for a weekend take of over US$160 million, according to projections.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is in cinemas now, and is the first of three planned spin-off films to the main franchise.
Newshub.
