Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker has topped the box office with its haul of $176 million – but it's the lowest opening weekend of the new trilogy.

The Force Awakens brought in $247 million in its opening weekend, while The Last Jedi took $220 million.

The final instalment of the Skywalker saga has received mixed to negative reviews from critics and is currently sitting at 58% on Rotten Tomatoes, which is also the lowest of the new trilogy.

star wars the rise of skywalker, adam driver, daisy ridley
Lucasfilm Ltd//Disney

Related: Star Wars' JJ Abrams responds to Rise of Skywalker's mixed response and Last Jedi retcon claims

While the film took $40 million in preview showings alone – becoming the fifth-highest grossing Thursday night preview in US cinematic history – it's likely the negative reviews have impacted sales since then.

Its box office performance is also likely to have been damaged by the major backlash to The Last Jedi, which is now widely considered to be one of the most divisive Star Wars films.

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star wars the rise of skywalker, daisy ridley
Lucasfilm Ltd//Disney

For many critics, one of the biggest issues with TROS is that it spends too much time trying fix the issues fans had with TLJ, while it's also been heavily criticised for its pacing and overstuffed plot.

Also taking $198 million internationally, TROS's global opening weekend total has been brought to $374 million.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is in cinemas now.


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Lettermark
Chris Edwards is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy.