Star Wars series overtakes James Bond at the all-time box office

The success of ‘Rogue One’ has pushed the ‘Star Wars’ series to another box office milestone.

According to the figures of Box Office Mojo (via MovieWeb), ‘Rogue One’s current global takings of $653.9 million (approx £530 million) have pushed the overall box office haul of the ‘Star Wars’ series to $7.34 billion (approx £5.95 billion).

This figure – which includes the grosses of the 1997 Special Editions and animated movie ‘Star Wars: the Clone Wars’ – pushes the Lucasfilm franchise ahead of the James Bond series, whose total grosses to date are $7.04 billion from the 24 films made since 1962.

‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’ is at present the fourth highest-grossing film in the series, having just overtaken the $640 million-grossing ‘Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones.’

Third place goes to 2005’s ‘Revenge of the Sith’ at $848.8 million, with 1999’s ‘The Phantom Menace’ in second at $983.6 million – but way out in front in 2015’s ‘The Force Awakens,’ which took $2.068 billion worldwide. (That said, 1977’s original ‘Star Wars’ is still the biggest earner adjusted for inflation.)

However, this still only makes ‘Star Wars’ the third biggest movie franchise ever in the filthy lucre stakes. The Harry Potter series (including the recent ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them’) comes in second with global box office takings of $8.46 billion.

But coming out in first place, perhaps unsurprisingly, is the Marvel Cinematic Universe, whose 14 films to date have raked in $10.89 billion worldwide.

And of course, given that both Marvel and ‘Star Wars’ are owned by Disney, we should imagine at least a few people are due some substantial Christmas bonuses at the House of Mouse.

Read More:
2016 biggest box office ever, thanks to Disney
YouGov poll reveals Britain’s favourite film of 2016
Yahoo Movies UK’s top 20 films of 2016