Box office Rogue One grossed $534.9 million in the United States and Canada, and $523.9 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $1.059 billion. In late November 2016, box office projections for the United States and Canada had the film grossing $100–150 million during its opening weekend. Disney chairman
Bob Iger noted that Disney and Lucasfilm did not expect
Rogue One to match
The Force Awakens total gross of $2.1 billion, nor its $248 million opening. Pre-sale tickets for the film went on sale at 12:01 am EST on November 28, 2016. Within 10 minutes, ticket sale sites such as
Fandango crashed, much like they had in advance of
The Force Awakens the year prior. In its first 24 hours, the film had the second-highest number of pre-sale tickets ever sold, behind only
The Force Awakens. Worldwide, the film was expected to gross $280–350 million in its opening weekend. In the United States, the film made $29 million from its Thursday night previews, making it the highest-grossing Thursday opening of 2016. On Friday, the film grossed $71.1 million, and $46.3 million the next day, securing a total of $155.1 million in its opening weekend, the third-biggest debut of 2016. It finished first at the box office again in its third weekend, grossing $49.6 million (−22.5%) over the three-day weekend and $65.5 million over the four-day weekend. In its fourth weekend, Sunday projections had the film grossing $22 million, besting newcomer
Hidden Figures $21.8 million. However, final figures the following day revealed the film tallied a weekend total of $21.9 million, falling to second place behind
Hidden Figures $22.8 million. The IMAX re-release of the film on August 26, 2022, made $1.1 million over the weekend, bringing its running IMAX total to $105 million, 10th all-time.
Critical response The film has received generally favourable reviews, praising its aesthetics and narrative. On
Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The site's critical consensus reads, "
Rogue One draws deep on
Star Wars mythology while breaking new narrative and aesthetic ground and suggesting a bright blockbuster future for the franchise." On
Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score 65 out of 100, based on 51 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by
CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, while
PostTrak reported film goers gave the film a 91% overall positive score.
IGN reviewer Eric Goldman gave the film 9 out of 10, describing
Rogue One's storytelling being related to the plot of
Star Wars (1977) as a "tricky gambit", but praised it for being clear and connected. He also enjoyed the visual aesthetic, which he opined helped establish its own identity, and praised the performances of Jones, Luna, and Tudyk. He disliked the film's connection to other
Star Wars films, disliking the use of digital effects to recreate a character from the original trilogy, deeming it as "
uncanny valley."
Peter Travers of
Rolling Stone affirmed the film as being reminiscent of the original trilogy, and enjoyed Edwards' direction and the pacing. He especially enjoyed Jones' performance and the action sequences in the third act, although he felt the film's exposition slightly undermined character interactions. Travers went on to give the film 4 stars.
/Film rated
Rogue One an 8 out of 10, with writer Peter Sciretta enjoying the darker tone, action sequences, Giacchino's score, and felt it retroactively improved
Star Wars by providing additional context and backstory. Sciretta wished the film focused on further characterization, which he felt was neglected due to the ensemble cast and runtime.
Justin Chang, writing for the
Los Angeles Times, praised Fraser's cinematography and also enjoyed the action sequences, feeling its storytelling would "immediately ascend to classic status" and justified its existence. He particularly emphasized the cast, and commended the performances of Yen, Luna, and Jones; he defended the ensemble cast from criticism by contending it highlighted the film's anti-fascist themes. Chang also speculated that the film had faster pacing due to wanting to avoid criticisms of slow pacing from the prequel trilogy.
Peter Bradshaw, a film critic of
The Guardian giving a 4-star rating
, enjoyed the film for providing "muscular and adroit" variations on familiar
Star Wars elements and themes in addition to the depiction of the Death Star. He also offered general praise for cast performances, including that of Mikkelsen, Mendelsohn, Jones, Tudyk, Yen, and Luna, but felt the film did not "go rogue at any stage" and considered it to be released during the cultural zeitgeist of
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015). In another 4-star review for
The Guardian,
Mark Kermode further praised the cast, enjoying the diversity and positively compared Jyn's character to that of
Ellen Ripley from the film
Aliens (1986). He also praised the cinematography of the battle scenes, which he described as being evocative of the
Normandy landings and
Vietnam War, and felt the standalone nature of the film allowed it to raise the dramatic stakes during the third act. In a more critical review,
The Washington Post's Ann Hornaday regarded the film as being simplistic and a "placeholder", comparing its imagery to
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) and
Arrival (2016). She positively regarded the visual aesthetic, Giacchino's score, and darker tone, but thought the plot was unoriginal and lacked the tone of previous
Star Wars films. That said, she regarded the film as superior to the prequel trilogy. Giving a C+ grade,
IndieWire's David Ehrlich similarly regarded it as "a spirited but agonizingly safe attempt to ... to keep the wheels greased between proper installments". He lauded the opening scene and final act, saying the latter reminded him of
Star Wars "as we remembered it", and praised the set design and visuals as "gorgeous." He also enjoyed how the film reconciled narrative elements between the original and newer
Star Wars films, but felt the lack of interesting character development and requirement to adhere to pre-existing narratives was to its detriment.
A. O. Scott and
Richard Brody, writing for
The New York Times and
The New Yorker respectively, more heavily scrutinized the film and gave negative reviews. Both felt that it did not expand upon the
Star Wars mythos, criticized the script, and considered the film to ultimately not justify its existence. Meanwhile, Brody, who went on to call it "lobotomized and depersonalized," felt Edwards overlooked many aspects of
Star Wars lore. Brody positively regarded Fraser's cinematography, and considered it his favorite element of the film, but was not affected by the death of major characters as he was not emotionally invested in their story.
Rogue One introduced many new characters into the
Star Wars mythology, with Chirrut Îmwe, played by
Donnie Yen, and K-2SO, played by
Alan Tudyk, being the most popular. In a poll on the official
Star Wars website in May 2017, in which more than 50,000 people voted, Chirrut Îmwe was voted as the most popular
Rogue One character.
George Lucas was reported to have enjoyed the film more than
The Force Awakens; upon hearing this, Edwards said, "I can die happy now." Tony Gilroy revealed that he received a call from Lucas saying that he loved the film. The film was praised for its exploration of
ethics in engineering; in a reviewer's words, "the core ethical arc of the film is one man's decision to engineer the Death Star in such a way as to prevent its use for galactic domination. One could fairly re-title the movie to 'Rogue One: an Engineering Ethics Story.'" James Seddon, writer for the military news website
Task & Purpose, lauded
Rogue One as the
Star Wars film that best reflects real military experience. Many details resonate with his own military service and seem real to veterans: "The spacecraft rattle annoyingly. Places where hands would naturally grab, or gear would rub, have the paint worn off. Cockpit windows are scratched, and, if the sunlight hits them wrong, they are hard to see through. Headphones get hung on a convenient grab rail and not on the hanger designed for them—if there even was a hanger. Apparently, designers of military vehicles in galaxies far, far, away have also never actually operated them in the field." He also pointed to aspects beyond the film's production design, like rebel Lt. Sefla's
muzzle discipline, the "bitter stoicism" predominant among characters who "spend most of their time wet, uncomfortable, afraid, and bickering" even as they work diligently to complete their mission, and the moral ambiguity of some of the rebels' actions. In 2025, it was one of the films voted for the "Readers' Choice" edition of
The New York Times list of "The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century," finishing at number 176.
Digital recreation While much of the
computer-generated imagery (CGI) received positive reviews, some news organizations published criticism about certain aspects, including the
visual effects that were used to revive
Peter Cushing, who had died in 1994, as
Grand Moff Tarkin.
The Guardians Catherine Shoard described the "resurrection" as a "digital indignity." Joseph Walsh of
The Guardian raised legal and ethical issues about bringing a long-dead actor to life. Lucasfilm had obtained permission from Cushing's estate before deciding to use his likeness. In September 2024,
Kevin Francis, who had been a personal friend of Cushing for many years prior to his death, filed a lawsuit against Disney for “Unjust Enrichment”, claiming that Cushing had made clear that he did not want his likeness reused without his consent. Some journalists also criticized the quality of the CGI that was used to represent a younger
Carrie Fisher in order to portray
Princess Leia at an earlier time, as well as its suitability in movie-making. Kelly Lawler of
USA Today said that "while Tarkin is merely unnerving, the Leia cameo is so jarring as to take the audience completely out of the film at its most emotional moment. Leia's appearance was meant to help the film end on a hopeful note (quite literally, as 'hope' is her line), but instead it ends on a weird and unsettling one." Michael Cavna of
The Washington Post described the facial effect as feeling "distractingly artificial and nearly alien, like a plastered death mask robbed of authentic actorly effect, well beyond the usual artifice of
Botox." For her part, Fisher was shown the CGI rendition of her younger self for the film by Kathleen Kennedy and "loved it."
Accolades Rogue One received two
Academy Award nominations for
Best Sound Mixing and
Best Visual Effects. ==TV series==