Advance ticket sales are out of this world for the latest epic Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The film is predicted to reach somewhere in the $140 million range in North America within its first weekend.
In the first day of ticket presales, which kicked off at midnight on Sunday evening, 75 percent of the seats were purchased through MovieTickets.com, according to Entertainment Weekly. Rogue One reportedly showed the biggest first-day presale numbers of the year for the ticketing site, outrunning numbers for Suicide Squad, Deadpool, and Doctor Strange, according to Deadline. Fandango's site reportedly crashed temporarily due to the high demand for tickets within the first 20-30 minutes, reps told EW. IMAX also noted that the Disney film recorded its second-highest day of presales, just behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens' 24-hour sales last year, Variety reports.
The latest film is set to trail The Force Awakens overall, which earned a staggering $248 million during its opening weekend in North America back in Dec. 2015. The film scored more than $2 billion globally.
In the past, George Lucas' LucasFilm has rolled out movies at least three years apart. Rogue One, however, comes only one year behind The Force Awakens. Rogue One is the first standalone Star Wars film to debut apart from the Skywalker family narrative.
Although the franchise is on a winning streak, Rogue One might not be getting a sequel, Variety reports. During an interview, LucasFilm President Kathleen Kennedy suggested the film was always meant to stand alone. The Gareth Edwards-directed film stars Felicity Jones and Forest Whitaker, and is set to hit theaters on Dec. 16.
