It’s been two full years since “The Rise of Skywalker” hit theaters on Dec. 20, 2019, and boy howdy have a few things changed since then.
COVID-19 made its smashing debut a few weeks after that (well, not technically, but we became conscious of its impact at that point), and we continue to work our way through dealing (or not dealing) with that.
One of those impacts has been a decided lack of blockbusters making a gagillion dollars in theatrical runs. “Spider-Man: No Way Home” got a ton of butts back in seats in recent weeks (to the tune of $627 million domestic), but if you look at a list of the biggest money makers in the U.S. from December of 2019 until now, the list looks like this:
No Way Home
Rise of Skywalker
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Rise made $515 million during its theatrical release, an objectively huge number. That figure ranks it fourth among Star Wars movies, about $100 million behind “The Last Jedi” and $17 million or so behind “Rogue One.”
Those numbers are meant to offer some context. A movie that was highly polarizing, much like its immediate predecessor, nevertheless made significant bank.
So, the natural follow-up question to that might be this: What made the movie appealing to such a large number of people? And why might it be worth revisiting today?
Let’s dive into that!
Continue reading The Rise of Skywalker retrospective: The kids are alright
