Star Wars has always been a box office juggernaut ever since it began in 1977, but even the legendary sci-fi franchise has faced competition from other blockbusters over the decades. Star Wars’ inflation-adjusted box office earnings are staggeringly high: only two of the 12 theatrically-released films fall below $1 billion when adjusted for inflation. Most Star Wars movies became the highest-grossing films for the year they were released, and absolutely blew their competition out of the water. There were some entries to the saga that were outperformed, however, and even the high earners had competition to deal with.
There are quite a few ingredients in the recipe for box office success. Making an entertaining movie is the most important aspect, but things like marketing, target audiences, and release dates are also important. Sometimes, picking the wrong release date can put a movie in direct competition with another film and end up hurting both, as moviegoers often have to choose between one or the other. Star Wars is no stranger to that concept, and there have been 10 times when the franchise’s box office earnings were directly impacted – or even beaten – by other films.
10 The Shining (1980)
Worldwide Box Office Gross: $44,017,374
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The second Star Wars movie ever released, The Empire Strikes Back, is also considered one of the franchise’s greatest. It made huge amounts of money – nearly $210 million (via Box Office Mojo), and even more during the 1997 special edition re-release – and is still considered one of the best sequels of all time. The universal success of Empire Strikes Back only makes its competition more surprising. In May 1980, just two days after the release of The Empire Strikes Back , Stanley Kubrick and Stephen King’s The Shining hit theaters, and it made for some stiff competition.
The Shining earned $44 million in theaters, and while it pales in comparison to The Empire Strikes Back’s total, it still drew crowds away from the galaxy far, far away. Part of the reason The Shining’s much smaller box office pull is so impressive is because it was only in theaters for a fraction of the time Empire was. Empire Strikes Back was in theaters for 28 weeks in total, longer than most films at the time, and The Shining was able to earn a sizable chunk of money in only 12 weeks. That likely drew some media attention and some adult moviegoers away from George Lucas’ film.
9 The Mummy (1999)
Worldwide Box Office Gross: $417,643,286
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After a 16-year-long hiatus, Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace signaled the franchise’s return to the theater in 1999. The Phantom Menace was a massive cultural moment at its release, and countless fans were anxiously waiting for its release. As a result, The Phantom Menace was the highest-grossing movie of 1999, but it still had to compete with Brendan Fraser’s The Mummy. The Phantom Menace collected over $207 million domestically in May 1999, but The Mummy also made over $117 million in the same month, and was released just one week earlier.
While The Mummy’s box office totals certainly didn’t beat The Phantom Menace, it put a significant dent in its profit margin, especially for a new idea competing with the long-awaited return of Star Wars.
The Mummy might not have been the fiercest competition Star Wars has ever faced, but it was one of the first times the galaxy far, far away was directly challenged at the box office. The Mummy was specifically aimed at the same young target audience as The Phantom Menace was, and it also drew in action adventure and fantasy fans. While The Mummy’s box office totals certainly didn’t beat The Phantom Menace, it put a significant dent in its profit margin, especially for a new idea competing with the long-awaited return of Star Wars.
8 Spider-Man (2002)
Worldwide Box Office Gross:​​​​​​​ $825,802,095
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Until 2002, competing movies could only hope to siphon off some of Star Wars’ audience and box office dominance. That changed with Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, however, and Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man was the movie to prove it. Released only two weeks earlier, on May 3, 2002, Spider-Man dominated Attack of the Clones at the box office and earned $172 million more at the global box office. Spider-Man was also the most direct competition Star Wars had yet faced, considering how the superhero genre appeals to younger viewers.
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Spider-Man was also the first time Star Wars was ever beat by a direct competitor in terms of quality. Attack of the Clones is generally considered the weakest of the prequel trilogy movies, and it earned just 65% on Rotten Tomatoes, compared to Spider-Man’s 90%. That dip in quality, coupled with the backlash some fans had about the way The Phantom Menace seemed to change Star Wars, probably helped Sam Raimi surpass George Lucas. Spider-Man also signaled a shift in major box office trends, as superhero movies would continue to be a problem for the Jedi and Sith’s earnings for decades to come.
7 The Dark Knight (2008)
Worldwide Box Office Gross:​​​​​​​ $1,009,025,676
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The movie version of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which preceded the animated show by a few months in August 2008, made the least money of any Star Wars film. With a worldwide box office total of just $68 million, The Clone Wars was the eighth most profitable movie in August 2008. As such, several movies beat The Clone Wars at the box office, but none of them beat it as handily as The Dark Knight did. Even though it was released a month prior, on July 18, 2008, The Dark Knight still managed to secure $151 million in August, blowing The Clone Wars’ $29 million away.
August 2008 Movies That Outperformed Star Wars: The Clone Wars Title August Box Office The Dark Knight $151,207,080 The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor $97,858,315 Tropic Thunder $83,852,435 Pineapple Express $79,918,601 Mamma Mia! $56,447,565 Step Brothers $51,260,525 The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 $41,108,020 Star Wars: The Clone Wars $29,619,167
There are several reasons The Dark Knight beat The Clone Wars at the box office. The biggest reason was simply that The Dark Knight is considered one of the best movies of all time, and one of the most profitable. The Clone Wars had no chance against such a juggernaut, especially considering it had only a fraction of The Dark Knight’s budget ($8.5 million and $185 million respectively). Additionally, 3-D animated movies at the time had a much harder time securing massive box office earnings, and The Clone Wars’ lackluster animation didn’t alleviate that disadvantage.
6 Sing (2016)
Worldwide Box Office Gross:​​​​​​​ $634,338,409
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Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was a bit of a gamble for the franchise, but it ended up paying off in dividends. Rogue One was the first Star Wars movie set outside the Skywalker saga, and it was also the first to not feature Jedi or Sith in any major way. Despite those changes to the classic formula, Rogue One was also a massive hit, earning over $1 billion at the worldwide box office and securing itself as one of the best Star Wars movies ever. Even such a smash-hit had competition, however, and Rogue One’s fiercest competitor was Illumination’s Sing.
Sing was released just five days after Rogue One, on December 21, 2016, and it secured $152 million at the box office that month. While Sing’s $152 million was overshadowed by Rogue One’s $408 million December total, that is still a significant portion of the month’s box office earnings. Sing also capitalized on a shift in dynamic: Rogue One was essentially a war movie, and Sing was likely more appealing to some families and younger viewers. Younger generations have always been a crucial part of Star Wars, so Sing’s ability to draw them away likely took from Rogue One’s profits.
5 Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)
Worldwide Box Office Gross:​​​​​​​ $962,544,585
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Depending upon who is asked, Star Wars: The Last Jedi was either a resounding success or an abysmal failure. One fact that can’t be debated, however, is that it performed quite well at the box office, securing over $1.3 billion against a budget of about $300 million. Still, The Last Jedi could have made even more money if it hadn’t been for the release of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle just five days later. While The Last Jedi did dominate in December 2017 by earning over $500 million, Jumanji more than held its own and secured $170 million in the final 11 days of the month.
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Like Spider-Man and Sing before it, the legacy sequel to Jumanji served as very direct competition for Star Wars. Both films were marketed towards young audiences, and both had major star power, like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Mark Hamill, to draw in crowds. Jumanji didn’t completely cannibalize The Last Jedi’s audience, but it certainly caused some moviegoers to choose one or the other. That definitely cut into The Last Jedi’s profits, and kept it from being as dominant as Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
4 Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
Worldwide Box Office Gross:​​​​​​​ $2,052,415,039
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While The Clone Wars made the least money of any Star Wars film, another title is considered the biggest flop due to its massive budget: Solo: A Star Wars Story. With a budget of about $275 million and a total box office takeaway of just $393 million, Solo actually lost money after marketing and distribution costs were considered. Because of Solo’s poor box office performance, there was no way it could compete with one of the highest grossing movies of all time, which also came out in 2018, Avengers: Infinity War.
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Even though Infinity War came out in April, it was still completely dominating movie theaters well into June. Infinity War had such a long and successful box office run that it basically engulfed Solo’s May 2018 release date and monopolized the movie news industry and viewers’ attention. The cliffhanger ending of Infinity War only helped it further, as fans were too busy theorizing about what Avengers: Endgame could have in store to think about Solo, a prequel about an already-established character. On top of Infinity War’s dominance, Solo held itself back in terms of marketing, which only compounded its issues.
3 Deadpool 2 (2018)
Worldwide Box Office Gross:​​​​​​​ $785,896,632
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Solo actually performed so poorly for a live-action Star Wars movie that it wasn’t just beaten by the unfathomably high earnings of Infinity War, but by another, much less dominant superhero movie as well: Deadpool 2. Even though it was rated R, a fact that usually limits a film’s reach, Deadpool 2 blew Solo out of the water and earned $112 million more in May 2018. Deadpool 2 was also released just a week before Solo, so it probably had an even more direct effect on the Star Wars film than Infinity War did.
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There are plenty of reasons Solo failed at the box office, from its poor marketing to its numerous director changes and burnout from the bad reception of The Last Jedi. One of Solo’s few advantages, the charming and sarcastic character of Han Solo, may have turned out to be a reason Deadpool 2 outperformed it. One of the main draws of the Deadpool franchise is the eponymous character’s wit and sense of humor, things that also happen to be the main draw of Han Solo. After seeing Deadpool 2 just a week prior, audiences may have gotten their fill of sarcastic scoundrels.
2 Jumanji: The Next Level (2019)
Worldwide Box Office Gross: $801,693,929
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The only, and quite surprising, movie franchise to directly battle a major Star Wars movie twice was Jumanji, thanks to the December 2019 sequel. Jumanji: The Next Level was released a week before Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, and while neither film did as well as its predecessor, Jumanji managed to significantly close the gap. In December 2019, The Rise of Skywalker earned $390 million at the box office, while Jumanji 3 earned $192 million. What’s even odder is that the next Jumanji movie has a chance to compete with an upcoming Star Wars movie again in 2026.
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One of the reasons Jumanji 3 was able to close the gap against The Rise of Skywalker is because of the latter’s reception. Even though it made over $1 billion at the box office, many critics and fans disliked The Rise of Skywalker; it has 51% on Rotten Tomatoes. On top of that, The Last Jedi turned several people off the Star Wars sequel trilogy, which seems to have shown in The Rise of Skywalker’s earnings. Jumanji 3, meanwhile, was mostly seen as an enjoyable sequel that didn’t have any of the baggage Star Wars had to deal with.
1 Frozen II (2019)
Worldwide Box Office Gross:​​​​​​​ $1,453,683,476
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One of the more surprising Star Wars competitors was another Disney movie: Frozen II. Normally, Disney spaces out its various theatrical releases quite well, giving each title at least a full month of its own to avoid drawing crowds away from the company’s other projects. That strategy didn’t seem to work for The Rise of Skywalker, however, as Frozen II remained popular well after its November release date and earned $160 million in December 2019. Frozen II almost certainly stole a large portion of The Rise of Skywalker’s younger audience and kept its December profits to under $400 million.
Frozen II’s competition with The Rise of Skywalker probably wasn’t intentional. Several other Disney movies were released just a month prior to the five Star Wars films the company has created, and none of them cannibalized the sci-fi franchise’s profits like Frozen II did. It seems Disney simply underestimated just how popular Frozen II would be, and it ended up being a massive movie for long enough to impact The Rise of Skywalker’s box office earnings. That underestimation makes sense, however, as Frozen II was at one point the most profitable animated movie ever.
Several other Disney movies were released just a month prior to the five Star Wars films the company has created, and none of them cannibalized the sci-fi franchise’s profits like Frozen II ​​​​​​​ did.
The relatively underwhelming performance of The Rise of Skywalker, at least when compared to the rest of the sequel trilogy, also highlights an odd trend in Star Wars as a whole. The first entry in each trilogy – the original Star Wars, The Phantom Menace, and The Force Awakens – invariably is the most successful. That fact, coupled with the few movies that have actually beaten Star Wars at the box office, speaks to the enduring appeal of the galaxy far, far away.
Sources: Box Office Mojo, Rotten Tomatoes
