If the trends of the past two Star Wars trilogies were any indication, The Rise of Skywalker should have been on course to easily outperform The Last Jedi, but between the backlash against that film and critical reception for The Rise of Skywalker being decidedly mixed, it looks like we may be looking at a more lukewarm opening. Well, lukewarm by Star Wars standards.

According to THR, the film is tracking to make between $175 million and $200 million in its opening weekend. This is below the $220 million of The Last Jedi and below the $248 million of The Force Awakens.

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While this is definitely not great news for the brand of Star Wars, which seems to be facing increased criticism from fans and diminishing returns, there are still some things to keep in mind. First is that, in no world is a $175 million opening a flop or failure. This movie is pretty much guaranteed to make a hefty profit. Most movies would kill for a “low” opening like this. 

Second is that we have to wait to see what fans have to say about the film. While critics have been mixed, fans have been known to butt heads with critics, so a bad review from them may be a great review from those self-proclaimed “real” fans (whatever the hell that means). In short, we’ll have to see how word of mouth does, and even if it starts off low, it’s always possible that it has a longer tail, assuming fans like it.

But we’ll have to wait and see. Regardless, it’s clear that Lucasfilm will have some soulsearching to do after this movie hits in terms of the theatrical releases, but that’s not really new news.

What do you think of this latest tracking? Let us know your thoughts down below!

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SOURCE: THR