Star Wars earns 517m globally

Star Wars: The Force Awakens storm-trooped its way across the global landscape (except for China) this weekend to post an awesome estimated $517 million global gross.

Disney owns the Star Wars franchise, after buying it from Star Wars creator George Lucas in 2012 for $US4.05 billion, and The Force Awakens is the first Star Wars film in 10 years since Revenge of the Sith. Rival distributors are saying that The Force Awakens grossed closer to $245 million domestically, with the final numbers to be released on Monday.

One big reason? Star Wars hasn’t opened in China yet, where Jurassic World made US$99 million (S$140 million) during its opening weekend.

“Force Awakens” became the biggest domestic opening in North America, as well as the biggest December opening both in North America and globally.

“The Force Awakens” now holds the box office records for biggest Thursday night opening, biggest one day gross, biggest December debut, and biggest opening weekend of all time.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is now in theaters; if you have yet to make it to a theater to check it out then do yourself – as well as Disney – a favor and get over there. Given the pent-up fan demand and the intense marketing, Disney had estimated that the movie would break the $100 million mark at the USA box office on its opening day.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens has set a new box office record.

Such a showing is on par with the palpable anticipation demonstrated by fans and the movie theater industry ahead of the release. “The enormity of this record-breaking weekend can not be overstated”.

Jurassic World still holds therecord for the biggest opening weekend worldwide, raking in US$524.9M when it was released earlier this year, The Hollywood Reporter reports. Even Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which was the previous opening day record holder, witnessed a fall in collections on Saturday (52%) and Sunday (15.8%) after becoming the biggest opener of all time. The film previously broke the record for the biggest opening day in the territory on Thursday.

Among other newcomers this weekend, the animated Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip racked up $14.4 million, and the Tina Fey and Amy Poehler comedy Sisters made $13.4 million.