“Rogue One” has launched with wild success. The new “Star Wars” movie took in $71 million on Friday including Thursday previews of $29 million.

LucasFilm and Disney are now looking at a $150-$160 million opening weekend. It’s the second best December opening ever. The first best was last year’s “The Force Awakens” chapter of “Star Wars.”

Number 3 on the list– the final “Hobbit” movie– is far back in the pack at $85 million.

Meanwhile, Will Smith’s god awful “Collateral Beauty” made $2.4 million last night and might hit $7 million for the weekend. That will be Will’s lowest opening since 1993 and “Six Degrees of Separation.” This includes recent flops such as Focus, Concussion and Winter’s Tale.

I saw “Collateral Beauty” a few weeks ago and loathed it so much I couldn’t speak. But there was a review embargo until the last minute for obvious reasons. Manipulative and contrived, “CB” is the fake version of “Manchester by the Sea.” It feels like it’s written by a 7th grader. It’s so phony, such a studio concoction, and artless it’s hard to imagine how it happened.

“Collateral Beauty” should have been called “Payday.” So many fine actors and Oscar winners/nominees– Helen Mirren, Kate Winslet, Edward Norton, Keira Knightley, Smith himself, Ann Dowd, not to mention Scientologist Michael Pena, and they’re all wasted. Mirren comes off the best, Winslet the worst. And everything else is just ridiculous. Avoid this movie. You have Lion, Manchester, La La Land, Moonlight for starters. Why waste your money on this?

Why does Will Smith take these roles? Ever since “The Pursuit of Happyness” he’s felt like he’s a savior of some kind, self-righteous, earnestly phony, humorless and pushy. He went from being Mr. Fun to Gag Inducing. Remember “Seven Pounds”? But this one is the worst. “Suicide Squad” was a step forward and this is three steps back. He’s got to stop it. Carlton would be horrified.

“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” took in over $29 million last night in Thursday previews. It also scored $33 million abtoad. The Star Wars film opens in the widest release ever today, and the Thursday take will be counted as part of Friday’s box office.

This new installment of the Star Wars saga has an 85 rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but that doesn’t mean anything. Fans are going to see it over and over, no matter what.

Still, “Rogue One” is going to be a big hit. Judging from Twitter responses last night, that final sequence– and final scene– are like a dream come true. The flourish which links “Rogue One” with “A New Hope” sends the audience out with huge smiles, and that’s going to make it a blockbuster.

So keep refreshing for the updated Thursday number…

It’s happened to many, many movie stars in the past. Time has caught up to Julia Roberts. Once the reigning star of the big screen, she’s heading to television.

Roberts has signed to make a limited TV series for Megan Ellison’s Annapurna Productions. It’s Roberts’ first test of getting into TV, and at least she’s signed with a hot company known for quality product. Annapurna will then field offers from HBO, Showtime, Amazon, Netflix and so on.

For Julia, it’s inevitable as she heads into her 50s that TV in some form is her future. Many actresses have made the transition a triumph. Candice Bergen is the best example, with “Murphy Brown.” Bergen won many Emmys and made a small fortune with her show. And she was never the box office draw that Roberts was in the 90s.

But now Roberts has had to face facts. Her last real ‘hit’ movies were in 2010– “Eat Pray Love” and “Valentine’s Day.” She had an enormous run of $100 million movies ending with “Erin Brockovich” in 2000 and an Oscar for Best Actress. After that her biggest successes were in ensemble pieces like the “Oceans’ Eleven” series. Her last film, “Money Monster,” with George Clooney, was a disaster at $41 million. (By the way– where is George Clooney? I kind of miss him. Your break is over, George!)

Lots of stars are signing up for TV shows and mini series including Robert DeNiro, Meryl Streep, and Julianne Moore. But for Roberts, this is a smart career move. If Viola Davis can be in a TV series and still get Oscar nominations, I say follow that example!

Sad to say, “Elle”– starring potential Oscar nominee Isabelle Huppert– is out of the running for Best Foreign Language Film. Nine films have made the latest round, and they will pared to five for final nominations. “Toni Erdmann” is the favorite, from Sony Pictures Classics. But “Elle” is out, and so is France. Huppert can still be nominated for Best Actress, and she should be, so we’ll how that goes. I’m a little surprised that “Elle” was bypassed but the Xavier Dolan film got in. You’d almost like “My Life as a Zucchini” to get in for the title! But we’ll squash that idea now.

Australia, “Tanna,” Bentley Dean, Martin Butler, directors;

Canada, “It’s Only the End of the World,” Xavier Dolan, director;

Denmark, “Land of Mine,” Martin Zandvliet, director;
Germany, “Toni Erdmann,” Maren Ade, director;
Iran, “The Salesman,” Asghar Farhadi, director;
Norway, “The King’s Choice,” Erik Poppe, director;
Russia, “Paradise,” Andrei Konchalovsky, director;
Sweden, “A Man Called Ove,” Hannes Holm, director;
Switzerland, “My Life as a Zucchini,” Claude Barras, director.