2018’s Most Beloved Star Wars Movies Worldwide

You know what May 25th means—it’s the 41st anniversary of Star Wars!

Stars Wars was released to the world 41 years ago and Star Wars nerds were never the same. And we at HowtoWatch.com are no exception. So to celebrate the anniversary, we decided to settle the debate once and for all: what is the most popular Star Wars movie in the world?

To figure it out, our team made a list of all nine Star Wars movies released to date, then cross-referenced our list with Google Trends data from the past year to see which films came out on top in 60 countries across the globe. We would’ve gotten more, but not all countries had enough search data for us to accurately determine their most-searched Star Wars film.

Here’s what we came up with.

6 countries like-like Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace

For how much flak the prequels get, a surprising number of countries tend to search for them over both the original trilogy and the newest generation of films.

We can understand Israel liking Phantom Menace. After all, it featured Israeli-born actress Natalie Portman in one of her first mainstream leading roles. The others? We’re not sure. Maybe they just really have a thing for podracing. Here’s the complete list of countries where The Phantom Menace came out on top.

• Australia
• Austria
• Greece
• Ireland
• Israel
• South Korea

Maybe one of these nations can explain Jar Jar Binks to us.

4 countries prefer Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Clones

Let’s face it: George Lucas is not exactly a master of character development, as evidenced by Padmé and Anakin in 2002’s Attack of the Clones. But while most Star Wars fans were not impressed by Anakin’s hatred of sand, we think most of the countries below really related to Padmé’s pronouncement that she “loves the water” since three out of four have significant amounts of coastline.

• Croatia
• Puerto Rico
• Serbia
• United Kingdom

Of course, that doesn’t explain landlocked Serbia’s affinity for Episode II. Maybe they just really like CGI puppets?

6 countries love Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith

For some reason, Europe is the only continent with any love for Revenge of the Sith. In fact, more European nations searched for Revenge of the Sith more than any other Star Wars movie besides The Force Awakens (they each won over six European nations).

Here’s the complete list of countries that 💗 Episode III:

• Bulgaria
• Czechia
• France
• Hungary
• Poland
• Romania

14 countries adore Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Apparently, South America can’t get enough of Rogue One. We think a lot of this comes down to there being actual representation in the film. One of the main characters, rebellion spy Cassian Andor, is played by famous Mexican actor Diego Luna. It makes sense that several South American nations and Spain would favor a film in which he features so prominently.

In fact, Rogue One stars an exceptionally diverse cast, including Chinese actors Donnie Yen and Wen Jiang and British Pakistani actor Riz Ahmed. We think it’s a big reason why Rogue One has won so many hearts around the world.

Here’s the complete list of countries that prefer Rogue One:

• Argentina
• Brazil
• Chile
• Germany
• India
• Italy
• Mexico
• Peru
• Philippines
• Singapore
• South Africa
• Spain
• Switzerland
• Venezuela

13 countries cheer for Star Wars: Episode IV—A New Hope

A New Hope is one of the most iconic Star Wars movies to date, and for good reason. It’s the (star)ship that launched a thousand sequels. Okay, maybe not that many—but at the rate Disney’s going, who knows?

It makes total sense that A New Hope would have so many loyal fans around the world. Why it seems to be so popular in Asian countries we can’t quite make out. But with its binary sunsets, sweeping music, and cinnamon roll–inspired hairstyles, we can understand why anyone would gravitate toward this film.

Here are the countries that know how to appreciate a classic:

• China
• Comoros
• Ecuador
• Egypt
• Hong Kong
• Japan
• Nigeria
• Norway
• Portugal
• Saudi Arabia
• Taiwan
• Turkey
• Vietnam

4 countries get behind Star Wars: Episode V—The Empire Strikes Back

Empire Strikes Back has the highest score of all the Star Wars films on Rotten Tomatoes, so we were a bit surprised to find that only four nations search for this film more than other entries in the Star Wars canon. But at least these countries know how to honor one of the most iconic scenes in all of filmmaking.

• Canada
• Costa Rica
• Iran
• United Arab Emirates

No one likes Star Wars: Episode VI—Return of the Jedi . . . ☹

Who doesn’t love a good Ewok battle? Apparently, everyone. Return of the Jedi got the snub with not a single country favoring it—even above the prequels. Come on, people—how could you not love this face?

10 countries love Star Wars: Episode VII—The Force Awakens

The Force Awakens is a pop culture phenomenon and currently the third-highest-grossing film worldwide in terms of box office sales.¹ So really, the only surprising thing here is that the film isn’t the favorite in more countries.

Here are the countries that give Rey, Finn, and Poe a little love:

• Belgium
• Denmark
• Finland
• Netherlands
• New Zealand
• Pakistan
• Russia
• Sweden
• Thailand
• Ukraine

3 countries root for Star Wars: Episode VIII—The Last Jedi

The Last Jedi, released just five short months ago, is one of the most polarizing movies in the Star Wars canon. As such, we weren’t exactly shocked that only three countries favored this film.

• Indonesia
• Malaysia
• United States of America

We were pretty surprised to find the United States on this list, though. Star Wars is such an entrenched part of the US pop culture legacy that we half expected one of the original trilogy films to take the crown in the states. It just goes to show that Americans have an insatiable appetite for new Star Wars material.

The winner: Rogue One

So which Star Wars film is the most popular around the world? It was close, but with 14 out of 60 countries standing behind it, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is the clear favorite.

Now, because we only looked at search data from the past year, it’s possible that there’s some recency bias going on here. But considering that The Last Jedi came out far more recently and still came out on top in just three countries, we feel pretty good about declaring Rogue One the winner.

Check out our complete findings below:

Do you agree with your nation’s favorite Star Wars movie? Let us know!

Sources

1. Box Office Mojo, “All Time Worldwide Box Office Grosses”