Disney couldn’t have asked for a better launch. Star Wars: The Force Awakens completely dominated the box office worldwide, although it did fall short of Jurassic World’s international records.
In North America, The Force Awakens (reviewed here) opened to $238 million, based on Sunday estimates. That’s $30 million more than Jurassic World’s opening weekend in June.
However, the fact that the film was not released immediately in China hurt its chances overseas. It still made a whopping $279 million out of North America and hit a worldwide total of $517 million. That’s shy of both marks Jurassic World hit. It opened to $316.1 million from foreign territories and $524.9 million overall. Still, hitting over half a billion dollars in under four days is incredible.
The Force Awakens already broke records by Saturday morning. It grossed $57 million on Thursday night and hit $125 million by the end of Friday.
By the way, the last live-action Star Wars movie, 2005’s Revenge of the Sith, opened to $108.4 million and went on to make $380.3 million domestically. That’s a mark that The Force Awakens could conceivably pass by the end of December.
The Force Awakens still might have an issue hitting the records owned by Titanic and Avatar. So many other big movies are hitting theaters over the next few weeks, including The Hateful Eight, Concussion, Joy and The Revenant. Sure, none of these will be as big as The Force Awakens, but they present new options at the theater for some who might want to see the new Star Wars movie multiple times.
UPDATE: The Hollywood Reporter is now reporting that The Force Awakens has actually beaten Jurassic World's international records. The official worldwide tally now is $528 million.
Back on the chart, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip earned just $14.4 million in its opening weekend. The Tina Fey/Amy Poehler comedy Sisters mustered just $13.4 million.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 added $5.6 million, while Creed took in $5 million.