As the article noted, before The Force Awakens, no movie released in December ever surpassed $85 million in its opening weekend.
Even ignoring The Force Awakens’ record-breaking performance last year, the fact that Rogue One could open around $130 million is still impressive.
It helps that Rogue One doesn’t have much in the way of competition around that time.
Hell, even with Assassin’s Creed and Sing opening the following weekend, it’d be safe to assume that Rogue One will dominate the rest of December when it comes to hauling in cash.