Ticket sales Thursday night and Friday surpassed previous records set by the final “Harry Potter” film in 2011.
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Consumers are just beginning to see this nostalgia-driven strategy – “Jurassic World”, which took in $208 million over its first three days in June, in some ways was the start – but studios have been engaging in a behind-the-scenes race for some time.
They reckon it may make $2bn for Disney over time, against US$1.7bn for Jurassic World.
The Force Awakens also set a new opening-day record of more than $9.4 million. Between November 18 – December 18; 25 per cent of all global digital content engagement around the word “Spoiler” was related to The Force Awakens. Through Friday, worldwide ticket sales reached $129.5 million, setting opening-day records in Britain, Germany, Australia, Brazil and other countries.
Jurassic World now holds the record for the largest four-day weekend in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
That film had the advantage of opening in China on the same weekend it opened everywhere else.
The film’s success isn’t too surprising, given the fact that it had already broken pre-sale ticket records.
Standing next to his wife, who was decked out in a R2-D2 hoodie, Chris Barreno was getting ready Saturday for his second viewing of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” at a theater in in El Segundo, Calif.
Disney bought Star Wars maker Lucasfilm for US$4bn in 2012 as part of a drive to focus on big-ticket movies.
“Sisters”, starring Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, pulled in $5 million on Friday from 2,962 locations, while “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip” netted $4 million in 3,653 locations.
Directed by JJ Abrams, Star Wars: The Force Awakens 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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To say that the force is strong with this one isn’t almost enough. That was a significant hurdle for “Star Wars” to overcome. Whether “The Force Awakens” can come close to the global hauls of those films ($2.8 billion for “Avatar” and $2.2 billion for “Titanic”) won’t be clear for weeks.
