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Rogue One becomes 2016's biggest film at the UK box office with hours to go

Disney had a total of five films in the overall top ten

Jacob Stolworthy
Monday 02 January 2017 08:03 EST
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Rogue One needed less than a month to become the UK's biggest film at the 2016 box office, earning the accolade with just hours to go.

The Star Wars prequel - which has been earning rave reviews since its release on 16 December - topped the annual chart on New Year's Eve shunting Harry Potter spin-off Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them into second place.

Rogue One's success capped what was another successful year for Disney who had a total of four films in the top ten: Finding Dory, Captain America: Civil War and The Jungle Book also appeared.

The success of Rogue One eliminates any doubts over whether the anthology spin-offs will perform as well as the upcoming sequels; while The Force Awakens outperformed the Felicity Jones-starring prequel, it signals that the Star Wars brand is huge enough to carry standalone films that exist in the same universe - it hit £50.7million after only 17 days of release.

Jones is contracted to appear in a future Star Wars film meaning Rogue One is probably not the last we'll see of Jyn Erso.

The film's eclectic cast includes Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Riz Ahmed and Donnie Yen who is rumoured to be appearing in the upcoming Han Solo prequel.

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