Overall business clocked in at an all-time high, pulling in $313.3 million altogether, besting the previous all-time high set back in June, when Jurassic World led the overall business to $273.8 million. Meanwhile, overall business skyrocketed ahead of this same weekend last year by 132% when The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies opened on top ahead of Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb and Annie.
Everyone expected it to be big. And there were optimists saying that it would not only beat the opening weekend record, but smash right through it. Well, for once, those optimists were correct. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is an absolute monster, smashing through the record books with an incredible $248 million in just 3 days (a per-venue average of a record-setting huge $59,982 from 4,134 locations, the widest release yet for a December release). Buzz for the past year has always been through the roof, and many analysts began turning this into a game, as it was getting more and more difficult to predict how high it would go. Tracking predicted $185-220 million, and the result obviously blew past that. One other insane note, the previous biggest opening in the month of December was The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey's $85 million opening back in 2012. Its crazy for a movie at this time of year to break out this much! Breaking it down to per showtime (there were 197,600 of them), the overall average per showtime was $1,255 and $17,220 from each screen showing it (over 14,000 of them).This kind of opening is a testament to the massive popularity of Star Wars, as it continues to prove to be the most-popular film franchise out there today. Disney's insane $4 billion spend on acquiring Lucasfilm is certainly going to prove to be a very very successful venture. And The Force Awakens is only the start of a revival of this franchise. A spin-off film titled Rogue One is currently wrapping filming for a release next December. Episode VIII is on the calendar for Memorial Day Weekend in 2017, with Episode IX and two or three more spin-offs also in development.
The Force Awakens easily stole the record for the biggest opening ever domestically (Jurassic World held the record for six months as it earned $208.8 million back in June), and narrowly took the record for the biggest worldwide haul in 3 days (an insane $529 million, just ahead of Jurassic's $525 million). Sticking to just overseas numbers, due to not opening in China until January 9, The Force Awakens settled for third place all-time behind Jurassic World and the final Harry Potter movie with $281 million picked up overseas (the other two earned $316 million and $313 million in their first overseas frames, respectively). Star Wars had the biggest Friday ($119.8 million) and Sunday ($61 million) grosses ever, while just falling short of Jurassic World for the biggest Saturday on record ($68.7 million vs. $69.2 million).
As for the coming weeks, Christmas break is going to propel The Force Awakens to even bigger heights (it earned an additional $40 million on Monday, easily a record for that day of the week). With $288 million so far (passing $200 million in record time, and the same will happen today with $300 million), it already ranks in the Top 75 biggest movies of all-time and its not done yet. Force Awakens also already ranks as the sixth-biggest movie of 2015 stateside, and will easily pass Minions, Furious 7 and Inside Out by next weekend. In hindsight, there's basically no way to tell how high it will go yet until Christmas break is over.
Overseas, The Force Awakens has already earned over $600 million worldwide and will likely pass $1 billion before the end of the year. And if China is huge also, it could very well be only the second movie in history to pass $2 billion worldwide (after Avatar). Disney and Lucasfilm produced the film for $200 million, plus another $225 million for marketing domestically and overseas. Reviews are fantastic (95% on Rotten Tomatoes), and the CinemaScore is an "A".
There were other films opening this weekend, though Star Wars made up 79% of the weekend's business.
Opening in second place was Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip. The fourth installment in the hit franchise earned a decent $14.3 million, for a $3,911 per-venue average from 3,653 locations. That's the lowest start to date for the Chipmunks, as Chipwrecked opened to $23 million back in 2011. Despite bad reviews (13% on Rotten Tomatoes despite an "A-" CinemaScore), Chipmunks still pulled in a decent crowd of younger children too young for the PG-13 Force Awakens. With Christmas break starting also, The Road Chip is set to play very well over the next two weeks, and through Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend (Norm of the North is the closest competitor in the coming weeks for Alvin and co). In comparison, Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb turned a $17 million weekend into a $110 million final gross. A gross near or above $100 million would be more than enough to be a success story for Fox.Meanwhile, third place went to Amy Poehler and Tina Fey's new comedy Sisters, which opened to a decent $13.9 million ($4,700 per-venue average from 2,962 locations). For Poehler and Fey, this is a few steps down from their previous effort Baby Mama ($17.4 million), though that was rated PG-13 and didn't have to deal with Star Wars. Its likely the R rating on this film held back some of its audience. Reviews were solid (60% on Rotten Tomatoes), while the CinemaScore was a "B-". This should be a draw for women over the coming weeks (those that aren't into Star Wars or are waiting for the crowds to die down).
The presence of Star Wars caused all holdovers to make a retreat. Having the best hold out of the bunch was The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part II, which was down 48% to $5.9 million, for a solid, if unspectacular $254.5 million pick-up in one month of release. Christmas break should help out Katniss and cause a possible jump up next weekend, but its going to be tough for it to make it to $300 million with its weekend grosses already this low. Worldwide, its at $600 million.
Creed was down 51% in its fourth weekend to $5 million, for a very solid $87.8 million pick-up in 26 days. Creed should easily pass $100 million, and may jump up next weekend. With the one-two punch of fellow Disney movie Star Wars as well as Alvin, The Good Dinosaur plummeted 58% to $4.4 million, for a disappointing $96.7 million pick-up in 26 days. Dinosaur should pick up a little steam over Christmas break, but it looks like it won't be able to come close to $150 million.
Krampus followed with a 51% ease to $4.1 million, for a fairly solid $35.1 million gross in 17 days as Christmas approaches. After its disappointing start last weekend, In the Heart of the Sea got hammered by Star Wars, plummeting 69% to $3.5 million, for a dismal $18.6 million in 10 days. Even with Christmas break, the final gross on this one probably won't go much past $30 million.
Two Bollywood imports opened in ninth and 10th place. Dilwale managed a $1.9 million start from 268 locations ($7,164 per-venue average), while Bajirao Mastani opened to $1.7 million from 304 locations ($5,727 per-venue average). Both should have decent runs over the Christmas season as some audiences look for alternatives.
Next weekend, Christmas Day brings in five new wide releases. Leading the charge is the nationwide expansion of possible awards season contender The Big Short on Wednesday. Also opening are Will Smith's football drama Concussion, Jennifer Lawrence and David O'Russell's Joy, Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg in Daddy's Home, and the Point Break remake. Its sure to be a crowded weekend, but none will come close to topping Star Wars. Stay tuned for more info.
