Official: STAR WARS EPISODE VIII is Being Pushed Back to December 2017; Disney Wants to Own the Holiday Box Office Season

This may be a letdown to Star Wars purists who want all Star Wars movies to release in May, as they did pre-Disney buyout, but this is a very smart movie by Lucasfilm and Disney. Especially since they just completely dominated this past holiday's movie season with the release of STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS.

STAR WARS EPISODE VIII is being pushed back from its current May 26, 2017 release date to December 15, 2017.

Via Disney's official press release:

"Star Wars: Episode VIII, originally scheduled for release on May 26, 2017, will now debut on December 15, 2017. The move follows the extraordinary success of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which was the first Star Wars movie to premiere in December. In the popular holiday moviegoing corridor, it smashed numerous records, including biggest domestic and global debuts of all time as well as the biggest domestic second and third weekends, en route to becoming the highest grossing domestic release of all time with over $861M and the third biggest global release ever with $1.887B. 

"Written and directed by Rian Johnson, Star Wars: Episode VIII is currently in pre-production and will begin principal photography in London next month. Kathleen Kennedy and Ram Bergman will produce and J.J. Abrams, Tom Karnowski, and Jason McGatlin will executive produce. Stay tuned to StarWars.com for exciting updates in the coming weeks."

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