'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' demolishes opening weekend box office record
Break out your lightsabers, everyone. Star Wars: The Force Awakens crushed U.S. and Canada’s opening weekend box office record with a whopping $238 million gross, beating Jurassic World and its $208 million. That’s four times as much as the next 35 movies from this weekend combined.
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The seventh movie in the franchise broke opening weekend records in 18 other countries, including the U.K. and Australia. Adding in the extra $279 million from the rest of the world, the global debut total for Star Wars: The Force Awakens was $517 million. Jurassic World brought in $525 million globally, but “Star Wars” isn’t released in China until January 9. Depending on how the movie fares there, estimators predict that the Force Awakens will push $2 billion. Avatar currently holds the title for the largest overall box office gross with $2.79 billion.
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Star Wars: The Force Awakens is the first movie in the sequel trilogy announced after Disney acquired Lucasfilm for $4 billion in October 2012 and has received an A from CinemaScore and 95% from Rotten Tomatoes. Directed by J.J. Abrams, the film stars Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, and Adam Driver.
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