First "Star" in Seven Years: $102 Million in Opening Weekend
# New Franchise Installment Leads US and Canadian Box Office. The Numbers Impress, But the Industry is Watching Another Metric.
By Tetiana Suchkova-Ladik
May 25, 2026 · 1 min read
The first full-length Star Wars film in seven years earned $102 million during its opening weekend in the US and Canada, topping the North American box office chart.
For context: 2015's "The Force Awakens" finished with $248 million in just the first three days. This means the new film represents approximately 40% of that opening performance. The difference is significant, especially considering that Disney invested hundreds of millions in promotion and was betting specifically on the return effect.
Seven years of pause is no accident. Following the failure of "The Rise of Skywalker," the studio froze franchise film projects, switching focus to series for Disney+. "The Mandalorian," "Andor," and "Obi-Wan Kenobi" partially retained the audience, but fundamentally changed the consumption format: viewers became accustomed to Star Wars at home rather than in theaters.
$102 million is a commercial success by any standard, but not a triumph for a franchise with such a background. The question isn't whether the film will break even—it will. The question is whether Disney has restored the audience trust that it lost between 2017 and 2019.
If the second weekend shows a drop of less than 50%, it means word-of-mouth is working in the film's favor. If it's more than that, the opening result was merely nostalgia, not a true return.
