“Star Wars” is, we all know, more than just a movie.
Advertisement
The Force Awakens has already set a box office record with an estimated $57 million from Thursday’s opening night shows alone. No analysts are predicting the number may be in jeopardy of being too low. Fandango says that the J.J. Abrams film has broken the company’s record for the most tickets sold by any title during its entire theatrical run; an anomaly considering that this feat was accomplished during pre-sales.
“Force Awakens” surpassed the previous opening-day record of US$43.5 million set in 2011 by the final “Harry Potter” movie. If it is, it would be in keeping with the original trilogy: 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back has a more sombre tone than the two films on either side of it.
Early Friday estimates also showed that the film is on target for a weekend of more than $200 million.
The new “Star Wars” film is the seventh instalment in the series created by George Lucas in 1977.
Is Star Wars VII poised to become the highest grossing film of all time, outpacing Avatar?
Rentrak’s Paul Dergarabedian, one of Hollywood’s best-known box office analysts, said the film’s opening night performance in the United States and Canada “portends a massive and potentially record-breaking opening day and weekend for the film”.
3-D and Imax screenings are helping to propel the record gross.
Interest extended to worldwide markets, where the movie brought in $US72.7 million in 44 countries. Leading up to the release, Disney took great pains to downplay the earning potential, but with numbers like these, there are a lot of folks at Lucasfilm and the Mouse House doing happy little dances. My appreciation for the franchise has grown exponentially over the past year. Critics have hailed it as a fan-friendly return to form for the franchise; the American Film Institute listed it among its top 10 films of the year. Greenfield said the success of Force Awakens would not offset the impact of subscriber losses at ESPN.
Advertisement
US President Barack Obama, 55 minutes into his year-end press conference, finished answering a question about incarceration rates and seized an opportunity to make his own escape – like Darth Vader fleeing the Death Star. Soon to begin was a screening of the film for families who have lost a relative to combat or service-related injuries.
