Star Wars: The Force Awakens has made serious bank, but does that surprise anyone?
According to CNN, the latest installment of the Star Wars trilogy took in a record-breaking $57 million at the U.S. box office through preview Thursday night viewings, higher than the $50-55 million projections. The film destroyed the previous record holder Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2, which raked in $43.5 million its opening day back in 2011. But as CNN’s Frank Pallotta notes, that film opened at midnight., while The Force Awakens opened at 7 p.m. ET.
Overall, the new Star Wars movie has already taken in an absurd $130 million worldwide. That’s bonkers.
https://twitter.com/frankpallotta/status/677893865114877953
Ticket sales for The Force Awakens are expected to break numerous box office records and have already “obliterated” Fandango’s ticket sale records. Again, not a surprise considering the hype followed by the critical praise for the pop culture event. (It currently sports a 95% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes on 250 reviews.)
The past year has been a great one for blockbuster franchises, as four of the top 10 grossing movies of all-time are from 2015, including Jurassic World (#3, $1.66 billion), Furious 7 (#5, $1.51 billion), Avengers: Age of Ultron (#5, $1.40 billion) and Minions ($1.15 billion). Those numbers aren’t adjusted for inflation so take them with a grain of salt, but people are going out to see movies. Is it possible that The Force Awakens will join those four movies before the calendar year is over?
[CNN]
