This weekend, Disney re-released Rogue One: A Star Wars Story in 250 IMAX cinemas throughout the United States as the company prepares for the launch of its next streaming series, Andor. The picture, which was released in 2016 to mostly excellent reviews and commercial success, earned $1 million in ticket sales during the weekend, bringing its total IMAX earnings to $105 million. Rogue One’s premium format earnings put it in the top 10 all-time. It’s the first in a series of live-action theatrical spinoffs from the major Star Wars movies, and the re-release includes a special preview of Andor, which acts as a spinoff to Rogue One.
Rogue One, directed by Gareth Edwards & starring Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Riz Ahmed, Donnie Yen, Jiang Wen, Mads Mikkelsen, and Forest Whitaker, made over $1 billion worldwide during its initial theatrical release. The film’s budget was reportedly around $265 million. This movie detailed the narrative of the heroes who sacrificed themselves to steal the blueprints for the Death Star and give the Rebel Alliance a chance to win in Star Wars: A New Hope. Disney’s grand intentions to extend the Skywalker-centered Star Wars world looked to have paid off at the time, despite the now-famous delays. Fans will remember that Rogue One’s production was famously challenging, especially the third act, which went through many rewrites under Tony Gilroy’s direction.
Michael Giacchino took up composing duties from Alexandre Desplat, who left the project. Giacchino had only a matter of weeks to finish the score. Andor, which will feature Luna as the eponymous intelligence officer, will once again have Gilroy at the helm. Starring with Genevieve O’Reilly, Stellan Skarsgard, Adria Arjona, Denise Gough, Kyle Soller, and Fiona Shaw in the 12-episode series. After the franchise had problems in theatres, Disney decided to switch to long-form streaming.
While Rogue One was a smash hit at the box office, its sequel, Solo: A Star Wars Story, became the first Star Wars picture to the tank. A bloated budget of almost $275 million due to a production that was far more troublesome than its predecessor led to a worldwide total of only $393 million for Solo, thus derailing the entire franchise. The relative failure of the final film in the original trilogy, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, effectively ended the series. Despite the box office failure of the Star Wars films, the Star Wars streaming property has thrived because of the popularity of The Mandalorian (which is now in production on its third season) and its spin-off, The Book of Boba Fett. This year also saw the publication of a third live-action Star Wars series, Obi-Wan, to generally excellent reviews. There are a number of other programmes at various stages of production. On September 21st, Andor will make his Disney+ debut.