Rogue One is UK’s highest-grossing film of 2016 despite opening in December

Rogue One has become the UK’s highest-grossing film on 2016 despite being released just two weeks before the end of the year.

The brand new Star Wars film, directed by Gareth Edwards, shot to the top spot with just hours to spare on New Year’s Eve, beating Fantastic Beats and Where to Find Them.

Starring Felicity Jones and Riz Ahemd, the Disney-produced film made an impressive £52.7 million during the last 17 days of 2016, according to comScore.

The Star Wars prequel is the second highest-grossing film of the year over in the US and has taken £500 million from audiences globally.

Finding Dory, which has made a staggering £840 million globally, pipped Edwards’ film to the post in North America.

Disney well and truly reigned supreme in 2016, owning six of the top ten highest-grossing films of the year.

Captain America: Civil War made £920 million worldwide, while the live action remake of Jungle Book came in fifth place on the list.

Other films including Zootopia and Star Wars: The Force Awakens also made it into the top ten.

Warner Bros also had a good year, with both Suicide Squad and Batman v Superman performing well on the international stage.

At the end of 2016, Disney became the first studio to make $7 billion in profits in just one year.

Thanks to Rogue One, the studio surpassed the £6.9 billion record set by Universal in 2015.