In all likelihood, anyone who is reading this article spent part of their weekend - a little over two hours to be exact - taking inStar Wars: The Force Awakens. The sole exceptions would be the small contingency of people who do not care (and are, inexplicably, very proud of this) and critics and media types who were invited to press screenings. Almost everyone else ponied up to get a ticket and a decent seat forJ.J. Abrams' take on the classic franchise and this was clear when it was announced today that the sequel is looking at a $238 million opening weekend, easily surpassing this past summer’sJurassic World, which tallied up a little under $209 million. ThatThe Force Awakensis also ten times the movie, both in terms of visuals and storytelling, thatColin Trevorrow’s insipid, mildly entertaining sequel is merely the cherry on all of this.
Globally, on the other hand,The Force Awakensfell short ofJurassic World’s titanic $525 million bow, bringing in a still hugely impressive $517. There’s a reason for this anomaly, however, asJurassic Worldopened in China the same week as it did in the U.S., and considering the growing size of China’s cinema audience, that would almost certainly make up the difference and more. India and Greece also didn’t open the film this weekend, rather pushing the science fiction epic for another week for a Christmas opening , but their audience sizes don’t hold quite as much sway as China. For the record, the film will be released in China on January 9th, a little less than a month after its initial release.
According to Disney’s press release,Star Wars: The Force Awakensblasted through more than a handful of major records, including:
To quoteSuper Troopers, that’s a lot of dimp, and it predictably left other openers cowering in the corner, most prominently theTina Fey-Amy PoehlervehicleSisters, which opened to middling reviews and $13.4 million, andAlvin & The Chipmunks: The Road Chip, which opened with a relatively impressive $14.4 million.The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2, one of the most disappointing films of the year, came in at fourth with $5.4 million, and the fifth place went toRyan Coogler’s excellentRockysequel,Creed, with $5.1 million; the holdovers have tallied up $254.4 million and $87.9 million, respectively.
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