5 Years Ago, Star Wars Delivered The Most Complicated $1 Billion Hit In Box Office History – SlashFilm

(Welcome to Tales from the Box Office, our column that examines box office miracles, disasters, and everything in between, as well as what we can learn from them.)

“‘Star Wars’ has lost its mystique, and ‘The Rise of Skywalker’ is to blame,” wrote Mark Serrels of CNET in his review of “Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker” in 2019. On the other end of the spectrum, and perhaps more telling, we had Matthew Rozsa writing for Salon, “If you disliked ‘The Last Jedi’ (like I did), you’ll like — but probably not love — ‘The Rise of Skywalker.’ If you liked ‘The Last Jedi,’ this review might not be for you.”

That just about sums it up. “Star Wars” was in a very unique place by December 2019. Just four years earlier, Disney and Lucasfilm were riding high on the unprecedented $2 billion success story that was “The Force Awakens.” At that time, and for about two years after, it was nothing but “‘Star Wars’ is back, baby!” For the most part. Cut to 2019 and the fandom had been divided, with Lucasfilm not quite knowing how to handle the situation. The solution? Bring back J.J. Abrams to finish what he started. The result? The most complicated resounding success story in box office history.

In this week’s Tales from the Box Office, we’re looking back at “The Rise of Skywalker” in honor of its fifth anniversary. We’ll go over how this version of ‘Episode IX’ came to be, what led Abrams back to the director’s chair, what chaos went on behind the scenes, what happened when the film hit theaters, what happened in the aftermath of its release, and what lessons we can learn from it several years removed. Let’s dig in, shall we?

Just to briefly recap, when Disney purchased Lucasfilm, the big selling point to the masses was not just one new “Star Wars” movie, but an entire new trilogy, as well as spin-offs. After “The Force Awakens,” Gareth Edwards’ “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” kept the good times rolling. Then came director Rian Johnson’s “The Last Jedi” in 2017, which made a massive $1.33 billion worldwide. The problem? It was an intensely polarizing film and, unfortunately for Lucasfilm, the middle chapter in a trilogy.

It’s not that people simply disliked “Last Jedi.” The people that hated it really hated it. This is when the “Star Wars” fandom (or a loud minority of it anyway) got toxic. It clearly caught Lucasfilm by surprise. To make matters worse, just a handful of months later in May 2018, “Solo: A Star Wars Story” bombed, becoming the lowest-grossing movie in the series. It was a dreadful double whammy.

Originally, Lucasfilm was going to have a different director for each installment of the trilogy. Colin Trevorrow (“Jurassic World”) was set to helm ‘Episode IX.’ He was eventually let go from the project. Thanks to a leaked script, we know Trevorrow’s version would have been titled “Duel of the Fates.” It was also, not for nothing, radically different. In the wake of Trevorrow’s departure, the studio once again turned to Abrams, who had made “Force Awakens” such a resounding success.

This was clearly reactionary, given the undeniably divisive nature of “Last Jedi.” As for Abrams, he hadn’t directed any other movies in the years after his first trip to a galaxy far, far away. When it came to getting back in the saddle, the filmmaker’s attitude had changed quite a bit. As Abrams explained in a May 2019 interview:

“[On ‘The Force Awakens’], I felt beholden to ‘Star Wars’ in a way that was interesting — I was doing what to the best of my ability I felt ‘Star Wars’ should be […] Working on [‘The Rise of Skywalker’], I found myself approaching it slightly differently […] It felt slightly more renegade; it felt slightly more like, you know, f*** it, I’m going to do the thing that feels right because it does, not because it adheres to something.”

Abrams had an unenviable job. How does one conclude a trilogy while trying to satisfy both sides of an intensely divided line? Despite his devil may care attitude, Abrams made seemingly safe choices in an attempt to, at the very least, not upset the apple cart any further. He brought back Palpatine, revealing that he was ultimately Rey’s grandfather. That walked back the whole “Rey is a nobody” thing from “The Last Jedi.”

He also made other big choices, for better or worse, such as shifting Kelly Marie Tran’s Rose Tico to the background for much of “Rise of Skywalker.” Even the title itself got “Skywalker” in there, which provides instant recognition. It was choice after choice that was either going to frustrate fans of what came before or aspire to please fans who felt betrayed by ‘Episode VIII.’ In a December 2019 interview, Abrams acknowledged that trying to win over everyone with any “Star Wars” movie at the time was a losing battle:

“We live in a moment where everything seems to immediately default to outrage, and there’s an M.O. of it’s either exactly as I see it or you’re my enemy. […] But it’s a crazy thing that there is such a norm that seems to be devoid of nuance and compassion — this is not about ‘Star Wars,’ this is about everything — and acceptance. It’s a crazy moment, so we knew starting this, any decision we made — a design decision, a musical decision, a narrative decision — would please someone and infuriate someone else.”

Angry fans were far from the only issue. Sadly, Carrie Fisher, who had played Princess Leia since 1977, passed away just before “Last Jedi” was released. Rather boldly, Abrams decided to use archival footage of Fisher from previous films to put her in “Rise of Skywalker” anyhow. Was that the right call? Be it the inclusion of Leia or any number of decisions in this film, from Rey and Kylo’s romance to seemingly killing Chewie only to bring him back minutes later, that seemed to be the big question hanging over this movie’s head.

Keeping right on schedule, Disney released “The Rise of Skywalker” in December 2019, exactly two years after “The Last Jedi” arrived. By that time, though, it felt like an eternity had passed. For what it’s worth, 2019 was a landmark year for Disney at the box office, with the studio amassing more than $10 billion globally. That was thanks to record-breaking hits like “Avengers: Endgame,” “The Lion King,” and “Frozen II,” among others. Divided fandom be damned, the Mouse House was going to end the year on a strong note.

“Rise of Skywalker” hit theaters on December 18, 2019. It did so against a wave of mixed responses from critics, with /Film’s Chris Evangelista calling it a “rushed, disappointing finale” in his review at the time. Be that as it may, the film posted a massive $177.3 million three day opening, with Universal’s “Cats” tanking that same weekend. The coast was clear for “Star Wars” to dominate the holiday season. While that opening weekend number was far below both “Force Awakens” ($247.9 million) and “Last Jedi” ($220 million), it still ranks as one of the 20 biggest in history.

The film stayed atop the charts in its second weekend, though it did suffer a 59% drop. Despite this, it was able to hold onto the top spot into the new year thanks to a lack of strong competition. All told, ‘Episode IX’ pulled in $515.2 million domestically to go with $558.9 million overseas for a grand total of $1.07 billion. Even against an eye-popping $275 million budget, it’s impossible to call this anything but a win, on paper anyway.

Be that as it may, “The Rise of Skywalker” is still the lowest-grossing entry in the “Star Wars” sequel trilogy by a lot. It’s also to this day one of the 40 biggest movies ever. Disney had another $1 billion success to end 2019, even with the film’s overseas run being cut a little short by the looming threat of the pandemic. At the same time, the decline in returns over the course of the trilogy was impossible to ignore.

Where to go from here? That’s what Disney and Lucasfilm had to ask. There were — and still are — no easy answers. Case in point, “The Last Jedi” holds a 91% critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes but carries a lousy 41% audience score. “Rise of Skywalker,” on the other hand? The inverse. It holds a 51% critic rating but an 86% audience score. That put Lucasfilm in a precarious place.

Just three years earlier, “Rogue One” became a $1 billion hit with very few familiar characters, demonstrating a possibly bright future for the franchise. Now? Lucasfilm appeared to be paralyzed with indecision, with a slew of various “Star Wars” movies entering development only to be canceled later. Rian Johnson’s trilogy, a trilogy from “Game of Thrones” duo David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the “Boba Fett” movie. All scrapped. As of this writing, Disney and Lucasfilm have not released another “Star Wars” movie since the finale to the sequel trilogy. 

All the while, shows like “The Mandalorian” thrived on Disney+ even as other series, namely “The Acolyte,” did not. Contrary to that, though, the “Star Wars” franchise has no crystal clear direction on the small screen either. Tellingly, the next big screen entry in the property will be “The Mandalorian and Grogu” in 2026, which feels like a very safe box office bet. But what about after that?

At the moment, James Mangold is developing a film set at the dawn of the Jedi Order. There’s also a movie focusing on Rey putting together a new Jedi Order in the works. Meanwhile, “Clone Wars” maestro turned Lucasfilm Chief Creative Officer Dave Filoni is working on a film that will tie together the events from “The Mandalorian” and its spinoff series “The Book of Boba Fett” and “Ahsoka.” On top of all that, Simon Kinberg (“Dark Phoenix”) is said to be developing a new “Star Wars” trilogy as well.

What will come after Mando makes his silver screen debut? Will any of the aforementioned “Star Wars” films actually make it across the finish line? It’s perhaps the biggest of many questions hanging over the franchise’s head at the moment, all of which stem from “The Rise of Skywalker” — a film that, on paper, reads as being hugely successful.

But “Star Wars” is a larger concern for Disney and it needs to keep fans happy while ensuring the franchise remains viable. Which fans does one aim to please at this point, though? Can the movies win over audiences en masse again? For now, we have more questions than answers, but they’re questions with a great deal of money on the line.

From my vantage point, the biggest lesson here comes back to planning. While the whole truth has yet to be made public knowledge, it’s clear that the “Star Wars” sequel trilogy didn’t have a fully mapped out story, or at least the main beats of a story that each movie needed to hit. J.J. Abrams has even said the sequel trilogy would have benefited from more planning. Regardless of which movies you love or don’t love in the trilogy, it would be hard to argue that it panned out as the best possible version of itself.

In the future, whatever that future is, “Star Wars” needs a plan and, without being too rigid, it needs to stick to that plan. At the very least, Disney and Lucasfilm seem to have learned that too much too soon is a bad idea, as, thank the maker, they won’t be releasing two “Star Wars” movies in 2026. I don’t envy the decision makers behind the scenes right now. I don’t have the answers. The only thing I do know is that a lack of planning and a seeming overconfidence led to a whole bundle of problems, even if it also led to three huge box office hits. It’s complicated.