‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ makes history as it breaks sales records

You may not have thought it was possible for J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens to break any more records during this first few days of release, but that’s exactly what’s happened. It has set box office records for biggest opening in countries including the United Kingdom, Australia and Russian Federation.

It seems likely Ford will get his payday too: The Force Awakens is believed to have made US$528m in its opening weekend alone. Many anticipate the movie to be the biggest so far to ever hit, though that will come a little bit later as it will open in China on January. If the film manages to gross the worldwide total of Jurassic World, the total would account for 41.1% of the acquisition.

Following an unprecedented $529 million worldwide opening, Deadline reports the Disney sequel accumulated another $40 million to $40.2 million domestically on Monday, shattering the previous Monday record of $27.7 million set by “Spider-Man 2”.

“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” destroyed box office records like the Death Star this weekend. “Our sole focus has been creating a film that delivers that one-of-a-kind Star Wars experience, and director J.J. Abrams, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and the Lucasfilm team have outdone themselves”, Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn said in a statement.

That amount is five times what Disney paid for the franchise three years ago.

The trio of heroes who appeared in the first of the blockbusters in 1977 – smuggler Han Solo (Harrison Ford), Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), leader of the rebel alliance, and her twin brother Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) – are all back and played by the actors that “Star Wars” first made famous. Universal’s raunchy, R-rated comedy Sisters, starring Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, followed with an estimated $2.5 million from 2,961 locations for a four-day domestic total of $16.5 million.

Even before anyone in the public saw the movie, the latest chapter of “Star Wars” was smashing records.

Meanwhile “Creed”, a next-generation version of the “Rocky” series earned $5 million in its fourth week on the big screen.