Refresh for updatesEarly Friday PM industry figures show Disney’sStar Wars: TheForce Awakensmaking $35M today, raising its cume through 15 days to $687M. What does this mean? It means that Force Awakensbypassed the No. 2 and No. 3 all-time domestic grossing titles Titanic($658.7M) andJurassic World($652.27M) in the same day.By end of Sunday,Force Awakens’total will stand at $744.8M, just $15.7M short ofAvatar‘s all-time domestic record of $760.5M. Should these figures hold up, this would putForce Awakensin a position to own the all-time crown by end of Monday. Worse case scenario – Tuesday.
Disney reported this morning thatForce Awakensended its 2015 with $652M, just $271K short of Jurassic World’s cume, a total which took five and half months to hit.
Why do people keep going back? As we pointed out in Rentrak PostTrak polls, the film is meeting and exceeding expectations by leaps and bounds. But as RelishMix gleamed from the social chatter, fans are debating the cliffhanger ending and whether or not the leading protagonist is related to the Skywalkers, the Solos…or the Kenobis. A number of fanboy articles out there deconstruct these theories left and right. TheStar Warssocial media universe has exploded from 667M to 755M since opening.
Some rival distribs thought Disney was daring to open Force Awakensduring this holiday play period given that it’s so finite. However, what this frame has going for it over summer is that not just kids, but adults are off, fueling two weeks of lucrative moviegoing. Given the fact that it’s winter, there are fewer distractions than summer post Christmas. The only out for many remains going to the movies, and a film likeForce Awakens,as we saw withJurassic Worldthis summer, has a multi-generational appeal. As such, we’re bound to a see a record New Year’s weekend by Sunday, outstripping 2010’s all-time high of $220M whenAvatarwas in its third sesh.
MORE…chart to come
'Star Wars' Climbs To $651.9M, New Year's Eve B.O. Jumps For 'Joy', Lifts 'Big Short'
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