‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Crushes Weekend Box Office Records, Pulls in Over $500M Worldwide
"Star Wars: The Force Awakens" was expected to be a monstrous hit this weekend, but it turned out to be a galactic juggernaut, setting a new record that is not likely to be broken until inflation can catch up with it. The film's performance is a testament to the strength of the franchise.
According to early estimates from Disney, as reported by Box Office Mojo, the film pulled in over $238 million over the weekend, which blows away the previous record "Jurassic World" set earlier this year.
"JW" raked in $208 million in its opening weekend, just narrowly breaking the previous record set by "The Avengers" at $207 million.
However, according to Deadline, those early estimates by the studio may turn out to be wrong, but in a good way. The site suggests the original estimate is too conservative, given that the new Sunday totals are looking closer to the $60-million range, which would put the official numbers for the film at over $250 million for the weekend.
BOJ reported that total international haul of the film was at $279 million. When combined with the domestic $238 million haul, that puts the sales at $517 million worldwide, which falls just shy of "JW's" $526 million. But, when the final figures include Sunday's receipts, the official number could jump up to $529 million, putting another record on the books for "Star Wars."
This will officially cement "The Force Awakens" as the record-holding movie in all time sensitive categories for films on the "all-time" list. The only record it did not break was the Saturday haul record. "Star Wars" collected $68.7 million that day, falling behind "JW's" $69.6 million and "The Avengers" $69.55 million.
Nevertheless, the film is now considered to be the one of the only contenders to break the all-time domestic gross record, which most have considered unbeatable. That record was set by "Avatar" in 2009 at $760 million. The only film that has even come close to that is "Titanic," which has grossed $658 million after two expanded releases.
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