Here’s all you need to know about the current state of the movie box office: Star Wars: The Force Awakens is unstoppable. After a weekend where it added $88.3 million to its domestic total, which now sits at an estimated $740.3 million domestic, the seventh installment of the Star Wars saga passed Titanic to become the second-highest grossing movie in the United States. Add to that, it is just $20 million behind Avatar‘s all-time domestic record.
Worldwide the movie sits at $1.5 billion, and it only took 19 days to reach that total. Currently in sixth place for all time worldwide box office, by the end of the week it should be No. 4 as it passes Furious 7 and Marvel’s The Avengers. Having already set records for an opening weekend, a movie in its second weekend of release and now third weekend of release, it may not be too early to think about what other records The Force Awakens can break. Of course there’s the illusive $2.788 billion that Avatar grossed worldwide. Other records to think about: Most consecutive weeks at #1 (Titanic holds the record at 15 weeks). For Star Wars to break that record it will have to contend with the likes of Ride Along 2 (week 5), Kung Fu Panda 3 (week 7), and Deadpool and Zoolander 2 (week 9). I think James Cameron’s seafaring epic is safe. Also safe is probably E.T.‘s record of most consecutive weekends in the top 5 (27 weeks).
Star Wars: The Force Awakens wasn’t the only winner of the weekend. The first weekend of 2016 is the second largest January weekend on record. The top twelve grossed approximately $204 million, $4.5 million shy of the record set back in 2009 when Avatar was king.
In second place was the Will Ferrell-Mark Wahlberg comedy Daddy’s Home with $29 million. Expanding to wide release was Quentin Tarantino’s eighth film, The Hateful Eight. It finished No. 3 with an estimated $16.2 million to bring its total to $29.5 million. Comediennes Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are showing audiences are game for a laugh as their hit comedy Sisters added another $12.58 million to its piggy bank.
Looking at possible Oscar contenders, Jennifer Lawrence’s Joy, Will Smith’s Concussion and the ensemble piece The Big Short had nominal drops, the best being Short. It appears that audiences have latched on to its star power (Steve Carell, Brad Pitt, and Christan Bale) to go along with its biting wit and scathing look at the 2008 housing crisis.
For what audiences could care less about, look no further than the Point Break remake as it opened low and remains low at the box office. I guess in some respects its failure is a compliment to filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow who proved well before her win for Zero Dark Thirty that women can direct action as good (if not better) than men.
The complete top 10 can be found below.
01. Star Wars: The Force Awakens – $88.3 Million ($740.3m)
02. Daddy’s Home – $29 Million ($93.6m)
03. The Hateful Eight – $16.2 Million ($29.5m)
04. Sisters – $12.58 Million ($61.7m)
05. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip – $11.8 Million ($67.3m)
06. Joy – $10.4 Million ($38.7m)
07. The Big Short – $9 Million ($32.9m)
08. Concussion – $8 Million ($25.37m)
09. Point Break (2015) – $6.8 Million ($22.4m)
10. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 – $4.6 Million ($274.2m)
