When theweekend box office estimatesforStar Wars: The Force Awakenscame in yesterday, we learned that the film brokea lotof records, save for one. The film easily surpassed the domestic opening weekend record set byJurassic World, but worldwide it looked like it fell short ofJurassic World’s global launch of $524.9 million with a $517 million worldwide total forJ.J. Abrams' sci-fi sequel. However, perTHR, those estimates are now being adjusted up, withThe Force Awakensnow looking like it actually scored $528 million worldwide, which would bestJurassic Worldfor the highest global opening weekend of all time.
This is impressive for a number of reasons, especially the fact that the movie has yet to open in China.Jurassic Worldhad opened in China when it set the record, so this lack of a key market was singled out as the reason whyThe Force Awakensdidn’t break that worldwide goal—and yet it looks like it actuallydid, with that lucrative influx still to come.
So where did this extra money come from? Well the international total has been adjusted up $3 million to $281 million, and yesterday, estimates put the film’s domestic total at $238 million, which easily bestedJurassic World’s $208 million record set earlier this year. But now it appears as though that domestic estimate was short—the film actually looks to have pulled in $247 million domestically for the weekend, with the possibility that eventhatcould be adjusted up once the final numbers come in.
In short, this is only the beginning.Star Wars: The Force Awakensopens in China on January 9th, where it’s expected to perform extremely well, and the film should also have really, really long legs here at home. Plenty of folks have already seen the movie multiple times, but with the holiday movie season offering little by way of entertainment for the entire family and January being the wasteland that it is, I imagineThe Force Awakenstrain will keep on truckin’ for many, many weeks to come. Could it beatAvatar’s global record of $2.7 billion worldwide? Quite possibly. And what film will unseat it from the #1 box office throne? WillStar Warsreign supreme untilKung Fu Panda 3on January 29th? Again, very possible.
For now, here’s a look at the box office records the film has broken so far:
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