Disney spared no expense on
Rise of Skywalker, with the finale reportedly the most expensive of the latter part of the trilogy with a $275M production cost and total global costs of $627M — versus
Force Awakens ($259M production, $776.5M total) and
Last Jedi ($200M production, $578.3M total). This resulted in net profits of $300M for
Rise of Skywalker, which were lower than spinoff
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story ($319.6M) but much better than
Solo: A Star Wars Story which lost close to $77M. The last two
Star Wars trilogy movies from Disney actually led Deadline’s profit tournaments:
Last Jedi in 2017 with $417.5M and
Force Awakens in 2015 with a massive $780.11M. Regarding participations here of $75M, Disney doesn’t pay out profit percentages after cash breakeven, but rather bonuses based on box office results, and that’s spread out here among Abrams, the cast and Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy. Not accounted for here in
Rise of Skywalker‘s black ink is merchandise revenue streams, which are largely kept under wraps. After
Solo bombed, Disney largely stalled its spinoff feature plans for movies based on classic characters. Two new trilogies were put into development, however;
Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss walked away from one of them, and there are questions whether Rian Johnson’s take is even proceeding, with the filmmaker putting his current focus on a
Knives Out sequel. Three new untitled
Star Wars movies remain dated on the Disney release schedule for year-end 2022, 2024 and and 2026. In the meantime,
Star Wars flourishes on its streaming service with the Jon Favreau-created live-action series
The Mandalorian, with several spinoff shows planned.
deadline.com
