Rogue One helps Disney become first studio to make $7 billion in one year

The new Star Wars film has helped Disney to break an all-time record 
Record-breakers: Rogue One has helped Disney break a new record
Ian West/PA
Jennifer Ruby20 December 2016
The Weekender

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Disney has become the first film studio to make $7 billion in profits in one year, thanks to the success of Rogue One.

The latest instalment of the Star Wars franchise made £300m globally during its opening weekend, meaning that Disney has broken the record for global ticket sales.

Thanks to Gareth Edwards’s critically acclaimed new film, the studio has now surpassed the £6.9 billion record set by Universal last year.

This year has seen a number of huge box office releases for Disney including Captain America: Civil War, Finding Dory and live-action adaptation of The Jungle Book.

One of the biggest openings for the studio was Dr Strange, which opened in November and made an impressive £650 million.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which was released back in November 2015, also accounts for a large portion of the profits, earning a third of its £2 billion profit in 2016.

Universal set the record last year thanks to success of Jurassic World, Minions and Furious , while the record before that was £5.5 billion, set by 20th Century Fox.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - In pictures

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Next year also looks set to be big one for Disney, with Beauty and the Beast opening March, the new Pirates of the Caribbean in May and Star Wars: Episode VIII later in the year.

Rogue One scored the second-best December opening weekend in both the UK and the US and Canada in history.

The record is held by Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which took $248m (£198m) in North America on its December debut last year.

Rogue One has taken £16.8m at the UK box office and $155m (£124m) in North America.

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