The Rise of Skywalker early presales outpace Endgame, all other Star Wars

Timing the launch of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker ticket presales to the heartwrenching final trailer debut for the film (and nine-film saga) seems to have paid off in spades. Tickets went on sale the night of October 21, and ticketers like Atom Tickets are already reporting massive numbers. Record-breaking, in fact — which is high praise considering that mere months ago, another Disney-owned film attempted to wrap up 22 films.

According to a release, Atom Tickets saw presales in the first hour of availability that hopped right over Avengers: Endgame and straight into unprecedented territory. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’s first hour of sales not only beat that of every single film in the franchise, but bested former sales champ Endgame by 45 percent. Infinity War, The Last Jedi, and Rogue One are the other contenders in the top five but according to this data, it either doesn’t seem close or moviegoers were far more eager to see the film early.

Endgame’s formerly record-holding first hour sales translated to a $2.79B global box office (the biggest of all time) as well as several records for the fastest to reach various sales figures. With The Rise of Skywalker now beating Endgame’s seemingly superlative income — at least in the very early figures — that could mean that director J.J. Abrams’ return to the franchise could be Star Wars’ biggest moneymaker ever.

That honor is currently held by Abrams’ first foray into the galaxy far, far away: Star Wars: The Force Awakens pulled a $2.06B global return back in 2015. Now that The Rise of Skywalker is set to end the entire saga started by George Lucas’ original, the draw will be similar, if not greater, than The Force Awakens' revival of the franchise.

Atom Tickets survey respondents are certainly onboard, saying in a fall questionnaire that The Rise of Skywalker was their most anticipated movie to see this fall. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker starts raking in the money and answering these box office questions on Dec. 20.