Things continue to look good for The Rise of Skywalker at the box office. Thanks to a strong $16.9 million take on New Year's Day, the final chapter of the Skywalker saga has passed $400 million at the domestic box office. Globally, things are also looking good, as the movie has eclipsed $800 million. While Episode IX will certainly go down as a financial success for Disney and Lucasfilm, it remains to be seen if the sequel will manage to top The Last Jedi by the end of its run.

With its New Year's Day take, The Rise of Skywalker has earned $407.5 million domestically. For the sake of comparison, The Last Jedi finished its run with $620.1 million. Internationally, it's quite similar with the latest entry in the franchise earning $407.9 million so far. The Last Jedi did $712.3 million in business overseas by the end of its run. One of the bigger problems that Episode IX is facing is a lack of interest in China. While the country hasn't historically been all that interested in Star Wars, things have been particularly dismal this time around.

Taking that into account, it may prove difficult for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker to overtake the $1.33 billion that The Last Jedi finished its run with. Does that mean it's a failure, speaking strictly in financial terms? Not by a long shot. It's all but assured the movie will finish with $1 billion, which is certainly more common these days than it used to be, but still significant. The biggest issue seems to be that critics and audiences have been divided with the last two entries in the series. That could make things difficult as Disney and Lucasfilm try to decide where to go from here.

It's also worth mentioning The Force Awakens right now. When Episode VII was released, it was one of the biggest pop culture moments in recent memory. It was the kind of excitement that simply can't be manufactured. That's why director J.J. Abrams' re-launch of the series earned $936.6 million domestically and $2 billion at the worldwide box office. It was never expected that subsequent entries would be able to match that level of success, but it did set the bar very high and that does make the relative success of both other entries in the trilogy look far less impressive.

For now, Disney will be taking a break from Star Wars on the big screen. They will, instead, focus on Disney+ shows like The Mandalorian and the Obi-Wan Kenobi show. The studio does have a December 2022 date set for an unnamed Star Wars movie that was originally supposed to be the first in the trilogy helmed by Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, but they have since departed. In any event, the Skywalker saga will be wrapping up its run as a financial success. This news was previously reported by Variety.