Wait, what? We could write for days about just how much of a runaway success Star Wars: The Force Awakens has been so far. And I really, really would, but Geoff has his finger on the button that would detonate the company micro-bomb that was surgically implanted into my skull during a mandatory workshop on dealing with stress.
What you want, is a comparison between films. A measuring stick to show you just how much of a hit Episode VII has been. Good news then: I’m nerdy and interested enough to actually dig up those numbers and do the maths needed to gauge how much the previous trilogies made when inflation has been added. Let’s get the ball rolling then.
First up, Star Wars: The Force Awakens is currently sitting on a worldwide gross of $1.9 billion so far. Or $1 983 560 846 to be super exact, as of today. It’s most likely going to break the $2 billion mark by this weekend, and is already the third highest grossing movie of all time, while James Cameron laughs about his success with Titanic and Avatar. Here’s how the rest of the saga has done so far:
Star Wars: A New Hope (1977)
Original gross: $775 million
Adjusted for inflation: $3 billion
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Original gross: $538.3 million
Adjusted for inflation: $1.54 billion
Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983)
Original gross: $475 million
Adjusted for inflation: $1.13 billion
Star Wars: The Phantom menace (1999)
Original gross: $1 billion
Adjusted for inflation: $1.46 Billion
Star Wars: Attack of the Clones (2002)
Original gross: $649.3 million
Adjusted for inflation: $855.4 million
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (2005)
Original gross: $848.7 million
Adjusted for inflation: $1.029 Billion
You can’t beat the original flick which took the entire world by storm, but you can finish close in second place. According to that list then, the highest grossing Star Wars films of all time would unfold in this order:
- Star Wars: A New Hope
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens
- Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
- Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
- Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
- Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
- Star Wars: Attack of the Clones
Which is also a perfectly acceptable running order to watch the film in, according to numerous Reddit threads. And yes, Attack of the Clowns probably deserves that bottom-place position, solely because of the ridiculous mullet that Obi-Wan Kenobi sported during the entirety of that film while he trained Groot.
Last Updated: February 2, 2016
