You may have heard of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which is the latest in a film series commonly known as Star Wars.
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The seventh movie in the celebrated sci-fi franchise is projected to sell close to $220 million worth of tickets in the United States and Canada through Sunday, beating the record $208.8 million for “Jurassic World” in June, Disney said. Disney bought Star Wars producer Lucasfilm for $US4 billion in 2012 and spent more than $US200 million to produce Force Awakens.
It means America has gone Star Wars mad. Disney said theatres were adding showtimes to meet “unprecedented demand”. That surpassed the previous opening-day record of $US43.5 million for the final Harry Potter movie in 2011. The film, which carries a production cost of at least $200 million, opened in most other markets Friday.
The film has already passed that mark in global sales with a domestic Friday gross of $120.5 million and $129.5 million in worldwide revenues, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Another four franchise films are expected to follow “The Force Awakens” over the next four years. The sci-fier is unspooling across 4,134 North American locations.
Imax and 3-D screenings are helping to propel the record gross.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens returns to “a galaxy far, far away” 30 years after the action in the Return of the Jedi from 1983.
Experts say the space story could become the biggest selling movie of all time.
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Now that accolade belongs to Avatar, which brought in £1.9bn following its release in 2009. President Barack Obama began a year-end news conference Friday noting, “Clearly, this is not the most important event that’s taking place in the White House today”.
