It was a predictably out of this world opening weekend for ‘The Force Awakens’, but the film has just missed out on breaking the world record.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens has just missed out on setting the world record for a box-office opening by $7.9 million, according to early estimates. Although the film smashed records around the globe it’s $517m worldwide box office gross puts it second to Jurassic World’s $524.9m record, achieved earlier this year.
Harrison Ford returns as Han Solo in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
The Force Awakens suffered a disadvantage as studio Disney had failed to score a timely release for the film in China. Back in June, Jurassic World arrived on US and Chinese screens over the same weekend, bringing up it’s opening weekend gross.
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But the film did still manage to smash a few other box office records, including all-time records of $238m at the US box office and £32.8m in the UK over the four day period, beginning on Thursday. However there is still hope it could surpass Jurassic World has the final totals for Sunday screenings are still being tallied.
The film also broke the record for the best ever Imax global opening with $48m and the best opening weekends in countries including Russia, Australia, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Romania, Hungary and New Zealand. It also holds the record for the most pre-sales ever, taking more than $100m worldwide and the biggest US December debut of all time.
According to Fox, it was adults who made up the largest chunk of the film’s audience at 71 percent. They also report that nearly half of moviegoers, 47 percent, chose to see the film on the generally more expensive IMAX screens.
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The Force Awakens is expected to hold on to the box office for quite some time and will most likely drop very little on its first-week total as it goes into its second week. The Christmas period will also surely help keep drawing in audiences and it could soon set a new new record for fastest film to reach $1bn worldwide. That record is also currently held by Jurassic World, which got there in just 14 days in back June.
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