Let me say, I think its safe to assume we all knew this was going to happen. (First of all, I need to apologize for not keeping up like I should, I've been busy with final exams)
Star Wars: The Force Awakens is reaching all-time levels for a movie domestically. The hotly-anticipated seventh installment in arguably the most popular movie franchise ever pulled in a huge $120.5 million on Friday (this includes $57 million from Thursday night grosses). This takes the records for both opening day and Thursday night previews. For "true" Friday grosses, Star Wars' $63 million Friday is actually just slightly behind Jurassic World's $64.5 million, showing that this movie was much more front-loaded.
Star Wars will likely dethrone Jurassic World to claim the biggest opening weekend in history. But how high will it go? Analysts are thinking anywhere between $220 and $250 million for the frame. I'm going to shoot for the middle and say $237.5 million for the weekend, in addition to perhaps another $250-300 million earned overseas for the weekend.
There were other openers. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler's comedy Sisters opened in a very distant second place with $4.9 million, while Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip opened to $4.1 million. Both are headed for weekends of $15 million. That's a solid start for Poehler and Fey, as its close to their previous comedy team-up Baby Mama ($17 million). Meanwhile, for Road Chip, its the lowest start to date for the Fox franchise, as Chipwrecked opened to $23 million back in 2011. However, family films usually have strong multiples over the Christmas season, and a similar play to Annie and Night at the Museum 3 from last year would give it a finish between $85 and $100 million.
More info coming tomorrow afternoon.
