Star Wars: The Force Awakens dominated the box office in the U.S. this weekend and had the highest debut ever for a film domestically with $238 million.
Early estimates on Sunday indicated that the film, however, would not be able topple Jurassic World’s global box office opening weekend record of $525 million, which was set this past summer. That ended up not being the case, as Star Wars went on to break that record, earning $529 million globally for the weekend.
Star Wars managed to accomplish that feat without even being released in China yet, which is the world’s second largest film market. The film will open there on January 9th.
“It’s bigger than big. It’s bigger than we thought it would be,” Walt Disney Co. Chairman and Chief Executive Bob Iger said. “And China has yet to open. So that’s an incredible weekend. And I must say it’s higher than we said yesterday.”
Jurassic World took their defeat in stride. Frank Marshall, producer of the dinosaur action-adventure film, sent out a tweet congratulating Star Wars’ success:
Cheers to J.J., Kathy, the cast and crew, and DIS/LFL marketing teams! #TheForceAwakens @Disney @StarWars @Bad_Robot pic.twitter.com/oa0zwuAb2Q
— Frank Marshall (@LeDoctor) December 21, 2015
Star Wars: The Force Awakens also managed to break a slew of other records:
- Biggest December domestic opening (Previous record: 2012’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey with $84.6 million)
- Widest December release of all time with 4,134 theaters
- Highest grossing Thursday night pre-shows with $57 million (Previous record: 2011’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 with $43.5 million)
- First movie to top $100 million in a single day
- Fastest movie to reach $100 million (Previous record holder: Jurassic World took two days to hit $100 million.)
- Biggest single day opening, including Thursday night screenings with over $120 million (Previous record holder: 2011’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 with $91.1 million)
- Fastest movie to reach $200 million (Previous record holder: Jurassic World)
- Biggest IMAX Thursday night preview ($5.7 million), single-day ($14 million on Friday), and weekend ($30.1 million)
- Highest theater average for a wide release with $57,568 per theater
- Most pre-sales with over $100 million (Previous record holder: The Dark Knight Rises)
- Biggest opening weekend in Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, New Zealand, Norway, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Sweden, Ukraine, and the U.K.
Time will tell if Star Wars: The Force Awakens becomes the highest grossing movie ever at the box office. Industry experts say it is possible. The current record holder is James Cameron’s Avatar with a domestic total of $760 million.
