The Force Awakens’ global total of $517 million puts it just shy of Jurassic World’s $525 million global record. “The Force Awakens” was heading toward a Thursday night-Friday total of more than $120 million domestically, said Dave Hollis, head of distribution for Disney.
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“This represents a new record for the industry and portends a massive and potentially record-breaking opening day and weekend for the film”, said Paul Dergarabedian, of box office tracker Rentrak. Midnight screenings alone accounted for £2.4 million ($3.58) of the day’s box office, smashing all previous records.
Experts have been analyzing and predicting the box office performance of Star Wars: The Force Awakens for months, but now we have hard numbers that give the sci-fi sequel the biggest domestic box office opening of all time. “That they laugh and cry and scream and have an experience that is even a fraction of what I had when I was a kid and saw Star Wars”.
The new Star Wars film is the first instalment in a decade of the series, which was created by George Lucas in 1977.
Mr Edwards is predicting the movie will gross over $100 million overall, a good sign for the cinema since it is the first of six new Star Wars movies to be released at a rate of one per year.
At that rate, the long-awaited space epic is poised to out-earn Universal’s dino reboot, “Jurassic World”, which broke the record for the biggest domestic opening by selling $208.8 million in tickets last June.
“It was bigger than a movie”, Dave Hollis, Disney’s distribution chief, said.
It means America has gone Star Wars mad.
As far as all-time box office sales, two films by James Cameron hold the record – Avatar (US$2.78 billion) and Titanic (US$2.18).
Directed by J.J. Abrams, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” stars franchise veterans Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Peter Mayhew, Anthony Daniels and Kenny Baker, joined by newcomers John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Lupita Nyong’o, Gwendoline Christie and Max von Sydow.
The latest film returns to “a galaxy far, far away” some 30 years on from the action of 1983’s Return of the Jedi.
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Audiences awarded it an “A” rating in polling by survey firm CinemaScore, Disney said.
