If they’re going to take home the title for the highest grossing opening weekend of all time, and they nearly certainly are, Jurassic World’s $208 million is the number to beat.
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Disney said the $57 million gross from Thursday night previews would give it an opening day of at least $100 million for Friday (which includes the preview numbers), topping the $91.1 million opening day for final Harry Potter movie.
JJ took over from series creator George Lucas and bought on board the original cast members – Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and Mark Hamill – for the seventh film in the franchise.
While “Star Wars” helped create the summer blockbuster, “The Force Awakens” is debuting in the holiday season of December, where the previous top opening was the $84.6 million debut of 2012’s “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”.
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Spain and Japan open Friday with the USA market.
The 73-year-old actor – who has reprised the role of Han Solo for the much-anticipated new movie – feels “proud” of the J.J. Abrams-directed film and touched by the support of fans. The film cost about $200 million to make, according to industry estimates.
Rentrak’s Paul Dergarabedian, one of Hollywood’s best-known box office analysts, said the film’s opening night performance in the U.S. and Canada “portends a massive and potentially record-breaking opening day and weekend for the film”. Greenfield said the success of “Force Awakens” would not be enough to offset the impact of subscriber losses at ESPN. Additionally, The Force Awakens has already sold $100 million worth of advance tickets, which means it’s made back half of its $200 million budget. The Force Awakens’s opening weekend is only the first test to see whether the film will satisfy Disney investors and film buffs alike.
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“The Force Awakens” opened in 12 global markets on Wednesday and expanded to 32 others on Thursday. Fey and Poehler portray siblings throwing a blow-out bash in their childhood home with a production cost of $30 million.
