This is the third-highest single-day gross in Chinese history, behind Avengers: Age of Ultron ($33 million) and Furious 7 opening day total of $68 million.
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Disney has marketed the Force Awakens aggressively in China, where the Star Wars franchise doesn’t have the same legacy as in North America or Europe.
As for the overwhelming numbers “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” has been racking up all across the globe, Abrams is beyond grateful for its success. Still, Disney faces bigger hurdles in China and other Asian countries, where the Star Wars franchise is not as well known or has as big a following as in the West. For example, the movie did not open No. 1 in South Korea and Vietnam.
“The Force Awakens” generated $41.6 million in USA and Canadian ticket sales, for a domestic total of $812 million since December 18 – the most of any film, researcher Rentrak Corp. said Sunday in a statement. That brought the film’s total earnings to $1.73 billion.
The Force Awakens hit another worldwide milestone this past weekend, winning its fourth weekend in Germany and becoming the fourth highest-grossing film of all time in the country, not adjusting for inflation.
Over the weekend, Star Wars: The Force Awakens became the first film to ever pass $800 million at the USA box office, while it also passed Skyfall to become the highest-grossing film in United Kingdom history, while it’s now also the highest-grossing Disney release ever in Russian Federation too.
Set in the 1820s, “The Revenant” features DiCaprio as frontiersman Hugh Glass, who is seeking revenge against people who left him for dead.
Number four was “The Forest”, a low-budget horror film starring Natalie Dormer and Taylor Kinney, which made just over US$13 million its first weekend in theaters, industry tracker Exhibitor Relations estimates.
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The top ten films grossed $140.6M which was up 34% from past year when Taken 3 debuted at number one with $39M; and up 25% from 2014 when Lone Survivor jumped into the top spot in its first weekend of wide release with $37.8M. Off 49%, Daddy has brought home a great $116 million so far and could work its way to $140-145 million. This includes its many misdirection’s in the build-up to its release, lack of adequate character development and not giving the films new stars a chance in the spotlight.
