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. Age of Ultron finished with 240.1 million from China, being a large portion of the total oversees amount, $946 million.
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Star Wars overshadowed what otherwise would have been a phenomenal North American performance for The Revenant.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams has noted that the apparent lack of Rey-themed merchandise surrounding the film’s release is “wrong”.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens was always going to have a hard task in China and the Asian market because the film series isn’t as well-known there as it is here. Perhaps if one person wins this week’s $1.3B Powerball jackpot in the US, they’ll spend all their money on Star Wars tickets? Internationally, it earned $3.4-M from 21 territories for a foreign take of $8.2-M and global box office take of $82.1-M.
It also coincides with a steep slide for Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight”, because apparently there’s only room for one gore-filled snowy Western at the box office. Daddy’s Home, which stars Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell, earned $15 million over the weekend and $116.3 million domestically so far. “The Revenant” grossed $38-million, according to studio estimates released Sunday. The comedy-drama about the housing bubble collapse was steady at #7 once again with $6.3 million, off just 30% from last week for the best hold in the top ten. Despite the challenges, the film exceeded projections, which had it opening to around 20 million.
The highest grossing US film in Chinese box office film is Furious 7, which went on to take in $390.91 million back in the spring of 2015.
The only wide release (since The Revenant had a two-week limited release) this weekend was the horror film The Forest starring Game of Thrones’ Natalie Dormer. Right now it is looking like at least $120 million in the USA and perhaps more; overseas grosses should make it a profitable investment for Fox.
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Box Office Mojo’s inflation calculations have Avatar in 14th, behind such films as The Exorcist, Ben-Hur and the original animated 101 Dalmatians.
