Unsurprisingly, Star Wars: The Force Awakens has passed the $1 billion mark for box office receipts. With an estimated $286.8 million in tickets sales worldwide this weekend, the combined box office total for the film, in just 12 days of release, has reached $1.09 billion dollars.
In one fell swoop the $153.5 million in domestic ticket sales that The Force Awakens pulled in this weekend not only pushed the film past the $1 billion mark but also broke the records for biggest second weekend for a film of all time and biggest Christmas Day gross ($49.3 million).
This is just the latest in a long string of records that The Force Awakens has already smashed. Its Thursday night premier had the highest preview night gross of all time at $57 million. The following day it took the records for Biggest Friday Opening, Single Day with its $119.1 in domestic ticket sales and highest per-theater average for a wide debut ($59,982). It also set a record for the biggest IMAX debut, grossing $30.1 million at the large format locations.
As its premier week continued, The Force Awakens went on to have the biggest Sunday ($60.5 million), Monday ($40.1 million) and Tuesday ($37.3 million).
Internationally, The Force Awakens has taken the crown for biggest worldwide debut ($529 million), fastest film to hit $1 billion globally (12 days) and biggest IMAX global debut ($48 million). The film also is now the titleholder for biggest opening weekend in the UK, Australia, Russia, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Austria, Poland, Denmark, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Croatia, Ukraine, Iceland, Serbia and New Zealand.
As it stands now, Star Wars: The Force Awakens is already the #2 movie of 2015 to date behind Jurassic World and the #5 movie of all-time. But expect those records and more to fall as the film continues its march towards its projected $2 billion worldwide gross. Though it is beginning to look as if that might have been a somewhat conservative estimate.
Tom Stroud liked this on Facebook.