The massive ticket sales show "Star Wars" remains one of the premiere Hollywood franchises able to draw big crowds to theaters, but the results also fell short of the prior films in the current trilogy. The 2015 movie "The Force Awakens opened with $517 million domestically and 2017's "The Last Jedi" had a $450 million global debut.

Roughly $176 million of the total for "Rise of Skywalker" came from the United States and Canada, ranking as the 12th-biggest opening of all time, and the third biggest in December, in the world's largest film market.

Copyright Reuters, 2019