Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was already one of the most expensive movies of all-time, but new figures suggest that the budget was even higher than previously reported.
Star Wars movie The Rise of Skywalker was the ninth and final film in the central Skywalker saga, bringing the epic story that started in 1977 to a close.
Anticipation was sky-high around the movie when it hit screens in 2019, but critics and fans were disappointed by the finished product, with the movie scoring just 51% on Rotten Tomatoes.
TROS nevertheless grossed more than $1 billion at the global box office – just – but that figure is looking less and less impressive thanks to an increasing budget that’s now nearing a monster amount.
Cost of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker approaches $600 million
The budget of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker has risen to a whopping $593.7 million, according to Forbes, which puts it just behind another Star Wars title – The Force Awakens – and what’s reportedly the most expensive film ever, Jurassic World: Dominion.
As the movie was mostly shot in the UK, Disney is still releasing figures for the movie six years on.
That’s because to secure UK tax credits, the studio is required to release financial statements, which happens during pre-production, and continues long after the film has hit screens.
The sequel also apparently came in under budget, with Forbes reporting that “filings for the production company behind The Rise of Skywalker state that by March 2019, one month after filming wrapped, the movie was ‘in line with the budget.’
“However, post-production cost less than expected and by the end of the year, less than two weeks after the movie debuted, it was ‘below the production budget.'”
That’s likely due to a condensed editing period so the movie could hit its December release date, in line with franchise predecessors The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi.