"Star Wars: The Force Awakens" is Still #1 as "The Revenant" Opens Strong

[JamesG]

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Crushes Records, Topping Largest Box Office Weekend of All Time
by Brad Brevet
December 20, 2015


Star Wars: The Force Awakens stormed the box office and walked away with an estimated $238 million in its first three days domestically (including $57 million in Thursday night "previews") along with another $279 million internationally for a massive $517 million worldwide opening.

Suffice to say, this shatters the domestic box office opening weekend record of $208.8 million set by Jurassic World earlier this year, but the record-breaking doesn't end there.



In just its first day of release Force Awakens brought in an estimated $120.5 million setting a new record for the largest Friday, opening day and single day.

All on its own, that opening day was also enough to break the previous December opening weekend record of $84.62 million set by The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in 2012.







Scoring a second place position, Fox's Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip brought in an estimated $14.4 million, continuing the franchise's declining numbers.

Opening weekends for the last two films have dropped 52% (Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked) and now 38% with respect to their predecessors.

If it's any consolation, the film was up against Star Wars and did score an "A-" CinemaScore (an improvement over Chipwrecked), and will likely have a strong hold next weekend if not a possible increase.







Universal's Sisters, starring Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, took third position against the Star Wars juggernaut, bringing in an estimated $13.4 million.

This is around two million better than This is 40 performed back in 2012, as it played opposite The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in its second weekend and the weekend opening of Jack Reacher.



This is 40 improved on its second weekend by 8% and given both films received relatively similar reviews and Sisters a "B" CinemaScore to 40's "B-", this makes a good case for an apples-to-apples performance.

If so, Sisters could be looking at a $75+ million run if it manages This is 40's 5.83 multiplier.







In fifth position, Creed held on well, bringing in another $5 million as its cume climbs to $87.9 million, but things weren't so rosy for In the Heart of the Sea.

Ron Howard's latest collaboration with Chris Hemsworth had a hard time standing up to the competition in its second weekend, sinking 69% for an estimated $3.4 million. The film's cume now stands at $18 million, more or less the same position Hemsworth and Howard's Rush was in after two weeks of wide release.

Not to be overlooked, two Bollywood films took advantage of a prime opportunity for counter-programming with Dilwale and Bajirao Mastani scoring ninth and tenth place positions.







In limited release, Sony Classics opened the much buzzed about Foreign Language Oscar contender Son of Saul in three theaters this weekend where it brought in $38,891 for a per screen average of $12,964.

The film probably won't end up reaching more than 125 theaters or so during its release so if it makes it your way you may want to be sure and check it out.







Also this weekend, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 became the sixth 2015 release to cross $250 million domestically and its worldwide cume has now climbed to $595.5 million.

The franchise finale, however, still ranks last among its predecessors, currently standing about $100 million behind The Hunger Games' final worldwide total.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=4134&p=.htm









December 18-20, 2015 Weekend Studio Estimates:


1. Star Wars: The Force Awakens $238,000,000
2. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip $14,400,000
3. Sisters $13,420,000
4. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 $5,650,000 / $254,438,774
5. Creed $5,085,000 / $87,900,073
6. The Good Dinosaur $4,232,000 / $96,546,068
7. Krampus $3,780,000 / $34,810,655
8. In the Heart of the Sea $3,465,000 / $18,600,095
9. Dilwale $1,875,000
10. Bajirao Mastani $1,660,000

[Flying Dutchman]

I just knew it would. I have not seen it yet, but watch out Titanic and Avatar, here comes Star Wars.

[Dude111]

Can you believe it????

I can . So many ppl have been brainwashed to think crap is good!!!!

All this is IS A COPY OF THE FIRST ONE!!! (But this is fake looking digital trash while the first one was beautiful analogue)


Garbage from the word go!!!

[DJM77]

Originally Posted by Dude111

Can you believe it????

I can . So many ppl have been brainwashed to think crap is good!!!!

All this is IS A COPY OF THE FIRST ONE!!! (But this is fake looking digital trash while the first one was beautiful analogue)


Garbage from the word go!!!

I just saw a Facebook status that said "Star Wars: The Force Awakens was good in the same way that a Xerox of the Mona Lisa is good."

[Flying Dutchman]

You are entitled to your opinion. In the same way that many people think the Godfather was a great movie, I thought it sucked. Everyone has their own opinion of what good is. Your opinion of garbage may be someone elses opinion of art.

[Vahan]

Originally Posted by Flying Dutchman

You are entitled to your opinion. In the same way that many people think the Godfather was a great movie, I thought it sucked. Everyone has their own opinion of what good is. Your opinion of garbage may be someone elses opinion of art.

Hence the age old saying. One man's trash, is another man's treasure.

[Mr. Television]

I must like trash cause I loved the movie. lol

[TMC]

How The Force Awakens Invalidates the Original Trilogy

[JamesG]

Star Wars: Force Awakens Crosses $1 Billion Worldwide, Topping Christmas Weekend
by Brad Brevet
December 27, 2015


With the largest second weekend of all-time, Star Wars: The Force Awakens has now grossed more than $544 million domestically and another $546 million internationally, totaling over $1 billion in worldwide ticket sales in just twelve days.

Along with five other new wide releases, it also sits atop the second largest weekend of all-time with the top twelve films grossing over $285 million as Daddy's Home defied expectations, cruising to an easy second place finish with an estimated $38.8 million.

Otherwise, expectations were mostly met when it comes to fellow newcomers in Joy, Concussion and Point Break while The Hateful Eight performed quite well in its limited, 100 theater debut.







Topping the weekend for a second straight weekend with an estimated $153.5 million, Star Wars is now the second highest grossing domestic release of 2015 with $544.5 million and the 15th highest grossing worldwide release of all-time.

It's also now the record holder for the largest second weekend of all-time, besting Jurassic World's previous record by a massive $46.9 million. In fact, the records are piling up so quickly it's becoming ridiculous as it is now the fastest movie to cross $100, $150, $200, $300, $350, $400, $450 and $500 million as well as holds the largest three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and ten day gross.







Force Awakens has topped the two largest weekends of all-time and next weekend the only added competition is the expansion of Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight. Avatar's domestic box office record of $760.5 million is very much in sight as Force Awakens is currently only $215.9 million shy of that number and has only been in domestic theaters for ten days.

The question right now doesn't necessarily seem to be a matter of "if", but "when" followed by "How much?" A 3.5 times multiplier based on its opening weekend alone projects a $867.8 million domestic run... could it possibly go higher?

A drop of 50% next weekend would still be enough to claim the largest third weekend of all-time as the stars seemed to be properly aligned for continued Star Wars box office glory.







Looking at the Christmas weekend's new wide releases we first come to the impressive performance of Paramount's Daddy's Home. Reuniting Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg, the well-timed, PG-13 rated comedy scored an estimated $38.8 million and a second place finish.

This was well above expectations and an improvement over the $35.5 million Ferrell and Wahlberg's The Other Guys opened with back in 2010.







In third was Joy, the latest film from David O. Russell and his troupe of actors led by Jennifer Lawrence alongside Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro.

The film matched expectations with an estimated $17.5 million, but with middling reviews it doesn't seem like this will match the success of Russell's most recent efforts. This was also the first film from Russell that went wide in its opening weekend since Three Kings in 1999.

His last three films all opened in limited release, riding a wave of positive reviews and award nominations to solid box office returns with both American Hustle and Silver Linings Playbook finishing well above $100 million. Depending on second weekend returns, Joy will probably finish around $50-60 million.







Also finishing as expected, the Will Smith drama Concussion tallied $11 million for the weekend along with an "A" CinemaScore.

Smith did score a Golden Globe nomination for his performance, but to give this one much of a chance moving forward he's going to have to hear his name announced as an Oscar nominee come January 14, otherwise the legs on this one are likely to tire soon.







Expanding wide this weekend, Adam McKay's The Big Short brought in an estimated $10.5 million from 1,585 theaters, topping the Warner Bros. Point Break remake.

Opening day audiences awarded Point Break a very generous "B" CinemaScore to go along with an estimated $10.2 million for the three day weekend. Expect this one to sink like a stone over the coming weeks.







We finally come to Tarantino's The Hateful Eight, which brought in an estimated $4.5 million from just 100 theaters for an impressive $45,366 per theater average.

This is a strong opening for the three-plus hour Western epic, which will expand into over 1,800 theaters nationwide on December 31 in a slightly condensed, two hour and 47 minute version.







In limited release, Fox Searchlight's The Revenant kicked things off in four theaters with an impressive $471,000 for a $117,750 per theater average.

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy, the film is directed by the Oscar-winning director of Birdman, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, and has generated considerable buzz for both its actors and director as well as cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki.

The film is set to expand to over 2,700 theaters on January 8.







Also opening in limited release, 45 Years starring Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay brought in $93,882 from three theaters.

Not to be overlooked, also contributing to the massive Christmas weekend, Universal's Sisters dropped only 0.3% for a second weekend, fourth place finish with an estimated $13.8 million, bringing its cume to $37.1 million.







On one final note, while the domestic run for The Peanuts Movie is winding down, it has expanded its international reach and brought in an estimated $25 million this weekend from 9,332 screens in 49 markets over the Christmas weekend.

The international cume stands at $45m, with 14 additional markets releasing within the next two weeks.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=4137&p=.htm









December 25-27, 2015 Weekend Studio Estimates:


1. Star Wars: The Force Awakens $153,522,000 / $544,573,329
2. Daddy's Home $38,800,000
3. Joy $17,500,000
4. Sisters $13,880,000 / $37,147,930
5. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip $12,700,000 / $39,399,441
6. Concussion $11,000,000
7. The Big Short $10,520,000 / $16,013,455
8. Point Break $10,220,000
9. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 $5,300,000 / $264,603,061
10. Creed $4,600,000 / $96,316,653

[Dude111]

Originally Posted by Mr. Television

I must like trash cause I loved the movie.

Ah man!!

Originally Posted by TMC

How The Force Awakens Invalidates the Original Trilogy

Thank you TMC!

THEY HAVE DESTORYED THE ORIGINAL PURITY THIS MOVIE ONCE HAD...... THIS WAS THE BEST 3 PART MOVIE EVER MADE AND THAT MORON SCUM RUINED IT!!!!!!!!!!!

I will not ever watch any altered movies!!!!! (I only agnoledge the original UN-MOLESTED 3 movies)

[Torgo]

I love The Force Awakens, if that means I'm brainwashed to love crap, then so be it.

For those complaining that it is just a copy of the first film. News Flash! A lot of sequels are just that, copies of the previous film. Look at Home Alone 2, it's the first film all over again. Kid alone, bumbling crooks try to get him, kid uses elaborate traps to stop them. It even has a creepy older character that Kevin at first fears but then befriends at the end, both having Kevin spouting way beyond his years philosophy to both of them. But like The Force Awakens, and other sequels that have done this, the film can still be good, and some even as good as their predecessors, as long as the film accomplishes the most important thing (for me any ways): It's entertaining. And The Force Awakens is this in spades.

And the experience I had watching it with my daughter, I wouldn't trade for anything.

[Vahan]

Sorry, Dude111 and TMC, but I side with Sonny and Torgo on this subject.

[Retro4Life]

For the first hour, I was enthralled. For the second, it fell apart, badly.

They telegraphed just about every major plot development in advance, and the one choice they made was so utterly depressing and downbeat, it may have completely killed my enthusiasm for any future sequels. TONS of logical inconsistencies. And the big threat they faced; seriously, they went there AGAIN?

Very fine acting, some nice nods to the original, but I honestly wish they had never bothered, ultimately. This stuff is canon now and cannot be taken back. That's why you need to be VERY careful when you revive a series, because once something is done, it's done.

[Retro4Life]

That's a great article.

I will never again be able to watch the first trilogy with the same sense of glee at the end. Because the new film basically says, "all those victories were nothing. In a few years, the galaxy is once again in a very dark place and the heroes you cheered on had no reward whatsoever for their efforts. Their growth was reversed, their happiness an illusion. And for some, their ultimate fate is simply heartbreaking and depressing."

I completely understand that conflict is the basis of drama. You can't have a film where nothing bad happens to anybody. But there were many ways to have conflict in this film without utterly destroying the lives of the heroes we had come to know and love, by giving them challenges but still incorporating the growth they experienced during the original trilogy. But they didn't do that. I don't want to be too specific unless the thread warns against spoilers, but this is not the only way they could have brought back the old characters and moved forward.

And I really did want to like this film. I am not a "hater". I sat in the theater four times during the original's run back in 1977 and I loved every freaking moment of it. I bought all the comics, the toys, the magazines, the novels, the games. I loved these characters, a lot. I just wish they had been done the service they deserved in this film. But they weren't, and now it's too late to do anything about it.

[irehtman]

Star Wars 8 is coming next ASAP!