He said Star Wars profits won’t offset larger troubles Disney faces from shrinking subscribers at the ESPN sports network.
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“The Force Awakens” fever spread through movie theaters around the globe on Friday, even reaching the White House, as “Star Wars” yet again began toppling box-office records with waves of lightsaber-wielding fans.
France generated $5.2 million in ticket sales, Italy $2 million and Sweden $1.7 million.
It all comes to a head Thursday evening (Dec. 17), as director J.J. Abrams’ “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” lands in theaters.
Star Wars is opening in 4,134 theatres in the U.S. and Canada, a record number for a December film debut.
President Barack Obama ended his press conference on Isil by saying: “OK everybody, I have to get to Star Wars“.
“The Force Awakens” easily beat the previous Thursday-night preview record of $43.5 million by Warner Bros.’ “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2”, set in July 2011.
Interest extended to worldwide markets, where the movie brought in $72.7 million in 44 countries. The Disney Infinity 3.0 Edition Starter Pack, which includes the Star Wars Twilight of the Republic Play Set, is now available in major North American retail stores for the PlayStation®4 and PlayStation®3 computer entertainment systems, Xbox One and Xbox 360 and the Wii U system from Nintendo.
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“The Force Awakens” will be light years ahead of those marks on its current pace, and there’s little doubt now that the space adventure directed by J.J. And in The Force Awakens, the Kenobian legacy figures are Han Solo and Leia Organa: Rey is the spiritual successor to both, having Han’s wits and Leia’s resolve, and now she’s pitted against the son who rejected them. 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. First lady Michelle Obama hosted a screening for children of families that lost members to war.
