After ‘The Force Awakens’ broke box office records – and completely obliterated what prognosticators believed was possible for a December-released film – the ‘Star Wars’ franchise has pushed back its Episode VIII from May 2017 to December 15, 2017! Lucas Films and Disney provided no explanation for why the film was postponed, but ‘The Force Awakens’ massive success, coupled with the December 2016 arrival of the ‘Star Wars’ anthology film ‘Rogue One’, likely convinced Disney to monopolise the week before Christmas with their never-ending string of ‘Star Wars’ films. To fill the studio’s May 26, 2017, vacancy, Disney announced the next instalment in the ‘Pirates Of The Caribbean’ franchise – dubbed ‘Dead Men Tell No Tales’ – will slide up from its original July 7 release date, Deadline reports! Despite the seven-month delay, pre-production on the Rian Johnson-directed Episode VIII appears to remain on schedule, with principal photography scheduled to begin on ‘The Force Awakens’ follow-up next month in London. “Stay tuned for exciting updates in the coming weeks,” Lucas Films and Disney promised in their statement. As of January 20, ‘Star Wars – The Force Awakens’ has grossed $863.1 million in North America and $1.03 billion in other territories for a worldwide total of $1.889 billion, against a budget of $200 million. The film is currently the highest-grossing release of 2015, the highest-grossing film released by Walt Disney Studios, the highest-grossing film in North America and the third-highest-grossing film of all time. It was the 24th film in cinematic history to surpass $1 billion worldwide, standing as the fastest film to surpass the mark, doing so in 12 days. ‘Star Wars – The Force Awakens’ received overwhelmingly positive reviews from both critics and audiences. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 93 percent approval rating, based on 327 reviews, with a rating average of 8.2 out of 10. The website’s critical consensus reads, “Packed with action and populated by both familiar faces and fresh blood, ‘The Force Awakens’ successfully recalls the series’ former glory while injecting it with renewed energy.” On Metacritic, the film has a score of 81 out of 100, based on 52 critics, indicating “universal acclaim”. On CinemaScore, audiences gave the film an average grade of “A” on an A+ to F scale; women, under-25s and under-18s gave it an “A+”, while 98 percent of audiences gave it an “A” or “B”. Robbie Collin of The Daily Telegraph gave ‘The Force Awakens’ five stars out of five and wrote that it “sets out to shake Star Wars from its slumber and reconnect the series with its much-pined-for past. That it achieves this both immediately and joyously is perhaps the single greatest relief of the movie-going year.”