A Holiday Movie Season WithoutStar WarsJust Feels Weird, Doesn’t It?

Something feel dissimilar this vacation season , does n’t it ? Are your local movie theaters missing a kind of universal excitement ? Is there no veridical buzz among your booster ? That may be because for the first time in three years , there ’s no Star Wars motion picture come out this vacation season .

Back in 2015 , after decades of Star Wars celluloid being released in May , Disney riff the script by releasingStar Wars : The Force Awakensin December . The move was seismic . The film grossed a then - record $ 248 millionover its opening weekendand ended up making a record book $ 937 million domestically at the goal of its 24 - workweek run . For weeks , the electrical energy was harebrained . Star Wars wasall anyone could verbalise about . However , The Force Awakens was also the first Star Wars film to get out in 10 days and a sequel over 30 year in the making . Surely , it was an unusual person .

Nope . Not in the slightest . In 2016,Rogue One : A Star Wars Storydidn’t break those record , but it proved a new Star Wars movie with almost a totally new cast of actor and fictitious character could still be a colossal succeeder . The film still made $ 155 million opening weekend and finish up grossing $ 532 million domestically over a 20 - week footrace . Like its predecessor , Rogue One ended up as the top grossing film of the year .

Argentina’s President Javier Milei (left) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., holding a chainsaw in a photo posted to Kennedy’s X account on May 27. 2025.

Then , last yr you ’ll think back the sequel to The Force Awakens was unloose , Star Wars : The Last Jedi . And like its Star Wars siblings , it had a massive opening weekend ( $ 220 million ) and ended up as the highest grossing cinema of the year , stop up with $ 620 million over 18 week .

Those bit are n’t just big , they ’re legendary . They ’re reserved for the kind of films that budge the conversation , not just in Hollywood , but around the dinner party table . These Star Wars celluloid were n’t just outcome movies , they were cultural landmarks , engender debate , upheaval , and driving people to theaters in droves . Each of the three was a moving picture you could either take a date or your grandparent to because almost everyone revel Star Wars and wants to be a part of the conversation . If you did n’t see the films , somehow , you felt get out out of something big .

But 2018 has been different . Instead of holding it for a December loss , Disney released the latest Star Wars film , Solo : A Star Wars Story , on its to begin with foretell May release date and something changed . Fora vast numeral of factors , only one of which was the release engagement , the motion picture grossed only $ 84 million opening move weekend and ended up with $ 213 million domestic over a 17 - hebdomad campaign . For any other film , those numbers would be unanimous . But on the heel of The Force Awakens , Rogue One , and The Last Jedi , a $ 200 million film was conceive a loser .

William Duplessie

So it ’s no wonder things feel dissimilar this year . There ’s no Star warfare cinema issue forth to theater for the holiday time of year . As a result , though , other studios feel more comfortable release their own big tentpole films during this time period , much likethey have historicallybefore Star Wars changed things in 2015 . The last three years were basically Star Wars and maybe two or three other major films . This yr there are a lot more moving-picture show filling the nihility .

Universal has the Peter Jackson producedMortal Enginesand Robert Zemeckis ’ direct Welcome to Marwen . Sonyhas the incredibleanimated Spider - Man : Into the Spider - Verse and the drollery Holmes and Watson . Fox is re - release Deadpool 2 asOnce Upon a Deadpool . Warner Bros. has a little movie call off Aquaman . Paramount has thereturn of the Transformersin Bumblebee . And instead of Star Wars , Disney is bringing back one of its most iconic characters inMary Poppins retort .

That ’s an nonsensical amount of variety and content . Plus , early buzzandreviewsonmost of the filmshas been very unassailable . It seems like while the amount is certainly high , the timbre may be there too , and that can only be a ripe thing for everyone . Theater owners wo n’t have to bank on just one motion picture doing well . Movie studios can spread the wealth between them a bit . And moviegoers have a short ton of options that could potentially add them back to the theater multiple sentence over the holiday .

Starship Test 9

And yet , even Mary Poppins , Spider - Man , Aquaman , Transformers , Deadpool , Robert Zemeckis , and Peter Jackson somehow do n’t collectively add up to Star Wars . When asked if his film , Mary Poppins Returns , could be Star Wars for families this year film director Rob Marshall told io9 , “ This is a movie I would want to go to with my family . If I had nothing to do with it , I ’d want to take my grandmother and my children . I would desire to go as a family because what movies can you do that with ? Hopefully , this flick can work on many storey for many citizenry . ”

That ’s the attitude most of these filmmakers likely have . They have made movies for the whole family to run at the holidays when buff of all geezerhood can total out to see them . These are cinema with huge fiscal and franchise potency . But where ’s the bombination ? Where ’s the excitement ? perchance after the film come out there will be some but , at the bit , all of these movies just feel like moving picture , nothing more . It ’s almost as if , in pop culture , there ’s Star Wars , and then there ’s everything else .

Which is why , next twelvemonth , Star Wars will be back at Christmas . Episode IX is scheduled for release December 20 , 2019 — and the rival , like former days , is a piddling more quiet . And while we do n’t know about the year after that ( Disney will have Fox ’s Avatar continuation in 2020 , so it would be weird to contend with itself ) , Star war at Christmas has somehow start to just feel correct . No matter what our difference are in the world , it ’s the present we can all unwrap and without it , the holiday time of year loses just a minuscule of its illusion .

Lilo And Stitch 2025