Rogue One blasts off with $71 million first day

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story debuted an impressive $71 million on Friday from 4,157 theaters in North America. That includes the $29 million it earned at Thursday previews. If the film plays like Star Wars: The Force Awakens, it could add another $41 million today and about $32 million on Sunday for a weekend total of more than $145 million. Rogue One received a strong A CinemaScore from audiences. Stay tuned on Sunday for the worldwide box office estimates!

New Line also debuted Collateral Beauty, starring Will Smith, in 3,028 theaters, but the film managed to bring in just $2.4 million on Friday and is headed for only about $6.5 million for the weekend. Audiences gave the film an A- CinemaScore.

You can read our three Rogue One reviews at the following links: Review #1, Review #2 & Review #3

Directed by Gareth Edwards, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story stars Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Mads Mikkelsen, Alan Tudyk, Riz Ahmed, Jiang Wen, and Forest Whitaker.

From The Walt Disney Studios and Lucasfilm comes the first of the Star Wars standalone films, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, an all-new epic adventure. In a time of conflict, a group of unlikely heroes band together on a mission to steal the plans to the Death Star, the Empire’s ultimate weapon of destruction. This key event in the Star Wars timeline brings together ordinary people who choose to do extraordinary things, and in doing so, become part of something greater than themselves.

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