Crunching Those Force Awakens Box Office Numbers

Talk about making the jump to lightspeed! Star Wars: The Force Awakens is not just a box office behemoth, it’s transcended to bonafide cultural event phenomenon, having reached $1 billion in global ticket sales in only 12 days – the fastest any film has ever made that milestone, and it shows no sign of slowing down. They nailed the all-time record for a weekend opening box office, with $247.9 million domestically in the first three days. Over their 2^nd weekend, the picture raked in another record-breaking weekend of $153.5, making a current grand total of over $544 million domestic, with another $546 million internationally. 

This brings Force Awakens up to the 2^nd largest U.S. film release of 2015, nipping at the heels of Jurassic World, with a total domestic gross of $652,270,625. It will need to pull in another $108 million over the next four days to surpass Jurassic as the biggest release of the year, which it may very well be able to achieve, given how strong it’s performing. Last Monday it made over $40 million, destroying the Monday record, pulling in over $142 over the four weekdays of the Christmas holiday, so it could happen, assuming they average $27 million a day, which seems likely, particularly with New Year’s Eve on Thursday. 

That’s when we start to ascend into even giddier altitudes of rarified air, with all-time box office champ Avatar’s record of $760 million, only $216 million down the road. Given that Force Awakens has only been in theaters 10 days, and repeat business has barely begun, claiming that title is a foregone conclusion. Avatar’s 10-day haul was only $212 million. Could Force Awakens actually rake in $1 billion domestic? We have to at least ask that question, as J.J. Abrams has tapped into a gusher of an oil well that doesn’t show any signs of stopping. It will surpass The Avengers next, before eclipsing Jurassic World – then it’s all “Cameron Country,” with Titanic ($658 million) the last stop on the way to dethroning Avatar. 

This kind of phenomenon is a rare thing, and can actually in itself drive sales. The nation’s students are still all out of school, and weather is generally mild. The world has embraced Star Wars in a major way, and Force Awakens has raised a towering pinnacle against which all subsequent chapters’ success will be judged. Time to get back in line!