Weekend matinees should continue to drive the film, but working against Star Wars is the fact that the film begins to shed screens starting this Thursday. “You have a remarkable performance by Leonardo DiCaprio, and you combine it with bold, innovative filmmaking Alejandro G. Inarritu is known for, and the audience embraces it”.
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“Star Wars: The Force Awakens”, $41.6 million ($104.3 million international). 2. Still, the J.J. Abrams flick kept rolling in the dough as it earned an estimated $41.6 million from 4,134 theaters in its fourth weekend of release. With that said, China is a very different market now. As such, it was on limited release in NY and Los Angeles.
In other box office news, Daddy’s Home sat pretty at No. 3 with $15 million, as the Will Ferrell/Mark Wahlberg’s Christmas comedy continues to do solid business even with the holidays over.
Over the weekend, Star Wars: The Force Awakens became the first film to ever pass $800 million at the US 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. Disney is playing the long game in its quest to turn China into a land of “Star Wars” fans, including giving one of the country’s biggest pop stars a Jedi makeover.
Over the last few weeks, Hasbro has been on the receiving end of public outcry over the company’s decision to omit Rey, arguably Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ lead character, from their line of themed toys.
The Natalie Dormer horror film The Forest opened to fourth place with its gross of $12.74 million.
Ahead of it stands Titanic at number two, which made $2.2bn (£150m) from 1997-98, and Avatar, still holds the number one spot with $2.8bn (£192m) taken from 2009-10.
The Big Short, the financial dramedy directed by Adam McKay, made a major push on the eve of the Golden Globes, upping its theater count from roughly 1,600 to 2,529. The financial crisis comedy with Brad Pitt, Ryan Gosling, Christian Bale and Steve Carell has earned $42.8 million. Sales in North America for all of 2015 rose 7.4 percent to $11.1 billion – the first year ever to top $11 billion, Rentrak said. It’s also racking up big numbers overseas.
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George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road is the top-grosser to date in the best picture drama category, followed by Tom McCarthy’s Spotlight ($28.6-M), Todd Haynes’ Carol and Lenny Abrahamson’s Room.
