‘Star Wars’ awakens to biggest box office opening ever

The highly anticipated movie shatters box office records in its first weekend, including the opening weekend ticket sales of around $238 million from theaters in North America, AceShowbiz reports.

“The Force Awakens” is only the third movie in history to open at over $200 million, besides its immediate rival “Jurassic World” and “The Avengers”.

The Force Awakens also stars Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Andy Serkis and Domhnall Gleeson, plus a secret stormtrooper cameo from Bond actor Daniel Craig.

As expected, The Force Awakens has achieved a historic opening weekend, toppling box office records like Ewoks knocking over AT-STs.

For my part, however, I found the movie itself to be a little smaller than expected-too heavy on nostalgia, and too narrowly drawn from the existing Star Wars universe.

“They tailored the campaign to every geography around the world, and did it in a way that still preserved some of the mystery of the film while not leaving a single stone unturned”. Through Friday, global ticket sales reached $129.5 million, setting opening-day records in Britain, Germany, Australia, Brazil and other countries. It opens there on January 9th, but expectations will likely be kept in check.

The Force Awakens has taken an estimated $517m (£347m) globally in three days. Star Wars is more of a niche movie and doesn’t appeal to everyone, so the interest may not last as it did for James Cameron’s films.

“For “Star Wars” fans and Hollywood, this weekend was like the Super Bowl, the World Series and the Kentucky Derby all rolled into one perfectly realized movie event”, said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Rentrak. However, the numbers for The Force Awakens may not all be in yet, and it wouldn’t be hard for the movie to get pushed over that record by the time the weekend is over. Opening in 4,134 theaters, the J. J. Abrams-directed flick scored the highest theater average for a wide release with $57,568.