Star Wars: The Force Awakens is the first film in seven years for the historic franchise. Thanks to the anticipation of a new entry into the galaxy far, far, away, The Force Awakens has shattered box office records everywhere.
Perhaps the most impressive record? It's the fastest film to reach $1 billion in box office receipts globally, doing so in just 12 days. It surpassed another film franchise that saw a new release this year: Jurassic World, which got to $1 billion in 13 days.
So far in its run, The Force Awakens has earned just shy of $1.3 billion total, with a little more than $629 million domestically. Opening weekend was better than nearly every other Star Wars film combined–The Force Awakens earned just shy $248 million when it opened, while the six previous films totaled just about $50 million dollars more.
It's not the highest-grossing movie ever in the U.S. (yet), but, judging from its current pace, it should get there by Monday. It just needs to pass Jurassic World ($652 million), Titanic ($658 million) and Avatar ($761 million).
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The $247.97 million from opening weekend is the biggest opening weekend and single weekend gross. The Force Awakens also had the biggest opening day gross with $119.1 million, and the biggest opening week gross with $391.5 million. 28.8 million tickets were sold for the film, equalling just under $60,000 in sales per theater.
A few of the other worldwide records The Force Awakens has broken include:
- Biggest worldwide opening weekend and single weekend gross – $529 million
- Biggest December international opening weekend – $281 million
- Biggest Disney international opening – $281 million
- Biggest IMAX worldwide opening weekend – $48 million
- Biggest single day IMAX worldwide gross – $17.7 million (Friday, December 18, 2015)
- Biggest single day IMAX international gross – $4.8 million (on Saturday, December 19, 2015)
- Fastest to $100 million in IMAX sales – 12 days
What's even more amazing about all of these numbers is that The Force Awakens hasn't yet opened in China. That has historically added quite a bit to the worldwide totals, so it'll be interesting to see how much more The Force Awakens can earn.
The success of the film should also lead to big things for its stars. Adam Driver, who stars as the movie's villain, Kylo Ren, will appear on the first Saturday Night Live of the new year, and has starring roles in the movies Midnight Special and Martin Scorsese's Silence. Oscar Isaac, flying across screens as X-wing pilot Poe Dameron will play the titular role of Apocalypse in X-Men: Apocalypse. Daisy Ridley, who plays Rey, has gained international recognition, which has already transitioned into a lead role in the animated film Only Yesterday.
