‘Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker’ Will (Unsurprisingly) Destroy The ‘Cats’ Movie At The Box Office

That Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the latest movie from Disney-owned Lucasfilm and the ninth and final entry in the so-called “Skywalker Saga,” is going to beat all of its competitors at the box office is a given. Even the upcoming film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s classic Broadway musical Cats, which opens the same weekend in late December, doesn’t stand a chance. Despite all this, however, a days-old report about box office tracking from The Hollywood Reporter is still turning heads (and inspiring jokes).

Per the report, The Rise of Skywalker “is on course to open to at least $175 million to $200 million in its domestic debut” during its opening weekend, which stretches from Friday, December 20 to Sunday, December 22. As for its only other debuting competitor that same weekend, Cats, THR‘s numbers indicate the Tom Hooper-directed musical adaptation will likely pull in somewhere between $14 and $16 million. In other words, either (a) musical aficionados/Cats fans/Taylor Swift devotees or (2) those who can’t get Star Wars tickets will be contributing.

Plenty of other holdovers from the prior weekend — like Clint Eastwood’s latest drama, the Rock and Kevin Hart-starring Jumanji sequel, the Black Christmas remake, and the Fox News based-on-a-true-story Bombshell — will be competing for moviegoers’ money. But rest assured: The Rise of Skywalker is going to dominate and Cats, “digital fur technology” notwithstanding, is not. Also, this is probably how the next Joker-esque supervillain is going to become a reality.

— Visionary Director Scott Wampler™ (@ScottWamplerBMD) December 1, 2019