‘Star Wars’ Tops Box Office For 3rd Week

To compare, the current all-time record holder, Avatar, grossed €114 million in Germany back in 2009. Something beyond $850 million seems entirely possible.

The top domestic film is Avatar, with a US$760.5 million lifetime domestic gross, but Star Wars is barrelling in to surpass it soon.

After an impressive $34.5 million on New Year’s Day, The Force Awakens displays a little bit of mortality for the first time in its run, falling 41% from Christmas weekend, with only $19.4 million expected today.

Because of strong reviews and out-of-this-world box office, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” should receive an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. China is the world’s second-largest box office, but the “Star Wars” brand isn’t as well known there as it is in most countries. In its second week, having expanded to about 2,500 domestic theaters Wednesday, the Quentin Tarantino film did not meet expectations of $20 million. It (Other OTC: ITGL – news) netted $10.4 million. Finally, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 held on in the charts, falling to 10th with $4.6 million and $274.2 million to date. It has $93.7 million domestically and $115.6 million worldwide; at this point it appears likely to top $150 million in the US. If it continues to play well and the overseas grosses build enough, Fox may not be stuck with too much of a write-down on this one, although the high budget of $90 million won’t make it eash.

And fans who don’t live in California shouldn’t be too upset as the rapper has promised he will be staging “a couple more” screenings in different cities. Both movies passed $60 million and are headed for a finish around $75-80 million. It finished No. 3 with an estimated $16.2 million to bring its total to $29.5 million. The Big Short, with an estimated $9 million, has come up…well, short, with $33 million in gross earnings. While spinoff Rogue One is out next December, I nearly wonder if it’s a mistake to release episodes 8 and 9 over Memorial Day weekend in 2017 and 2019. But moviegoing has become hugely popular in the meantime, with the Chinese box office set to hit nearly US$9bil (RM38.99bil) in 2019 from US$5bil (RM21.67bil) this year, according to PwC, fast catching up with the United States.