Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker becomes seventh Disney film of 2019 to enter $1 billion-dollar club

Disney and Lucasfilm’s  _Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker_ surpassed the coveted $1 billion dollar mark globally on Tuesday. The ninth and final instalment of the Skywalker saga, which released on 20 December, has now become the seventh Disney title of 2019 to hit the milestone. Check out the announcement here

Thank you to our fans across the galaxy as we celebrate Star Wars: #TheRiseOfSkywalker crossing $1B at the global box office! pic.twitter.com/SbbxYv7N4a

— Star Wars (@starwars) January 16, 2020

Directed by JJ Abrams, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker has collected $481 million at the US box office and $519 in other countries, making a worldwide total of  $1.001 billion. However, publications have noted the film has taken a significantly long amount of time to enter the billion-dollar club (28 days), as compared to prior _Star War_s instalments. Abrams’ The Force Awakens (2015) achieved it in 12 days, and Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi  (2017) did so in 19 days. The other films from Disney which crossed $1 billion mark in 2019 are Captain Marvel , Aladdin , The Lion King , Avengers: Endgame , Frozen II , and _Toy Story 4_ . Incidentally, Avengers: Endgame became the highest-grossing film of all time last year, with a whopping $2.798 billion in its safe. Despite the big numbers though, the response to The Rise of Skywalker has been divisive . While some critics have credited the film for tying together the entire Skywalker saga, others have dismissed it as fan service. The Rise of Skywalker sees the return of Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Adam Driver, and Oscar Isaac, as well as Richard E Grant, Kelly Marie Tran, Domhnall Gleeson, and Lupita Nyong’o. Billy Dee Williams, Mark Hamill, and Carrie Fisher also appear in the film. Fisher died in 2016 before filming of The Rise of Skywalker began. However, there was unused footage from Star Wars: The Force Awakens that Abrams  repurposed  to give Princess Leia a proper goodbye. As far as Disney is concerned, the lineup of films this year does not include meg-franchises or money-spinner sequels. It would be interesting to see how the studio’s performance pans out in comparison to the others.