“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” took in a record breaking $120.5 million at the US box office for its opening day on Friday. Rey, Finn and the new cast of “Star Wars” characters similarly trounced the opening day performance of “Marvel’s The Avengers”, “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” and the “Twilight Saga”.
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Star Wars: The Force Awakens grows more powerful as its opening weekend continues to blast through box office records. JJ Abrams has revealed that he initially rejected the opportunity to direct the latest instalment in the sci-fi phenomena because he thought the gig could ruin his career as a respected film director.
The Thursday night debut of “The Force Awakens” grosses $57 million in North American theaters, reports Variety.
Is Star Wars VII poised to become the highest grossing film of all time, outpacing Avatar? The film cost about $200 million to make, according to industry estimates. In addition, MovieTickets.com continues to report that 93% of all its tickets sales in the last 24 hours are for Force Awakens.
Walt Disney Co released its projections late Friday stating USA and Canadian ticket sales were hurtling towards $125m (£84m) that day and it could bring in $225m (£151m) through Sunday, which would give it the biggest opening weekend of all time.
The movie is opening three years after Disney paid $4.06 billion for Lucasfilm.
Strong reviews for the film, which is set 30 years after “Return of the Jedi, ” have added to the fervor for “The Force Awakens”.
“The potential for The Force Awakens to ultimately break into the $2bn club worldwide is certainly in the realm of possibility”, he said. That honor went to a special screening of “The Force Awakens” for Gold Star families who have lost relatives to combat- or service-related injuries.
But I am not the world’s most die-hard “Star Wars” fan.
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“Clearly, this is not the most important event that’s taking place in the White House today”, Obama said to start the press conference.
