The Force is with Star Wars as movie proves a record blockbuster

According to studio estimates Sunday, the adventures of Rey, Finn and stalwarts from the previous “Star Wars” films raked in $41.6 million in the US and Canada and $104.3 million overseas, led by a record-breaking opening in China.In the USA and Canada, it is the biggest movie ever and the first to pass $800 million with $812 million so far. Internationally, it earned $3.4-M from 21 territories for a foreign take of $8.2-M and global box office take of $82.1-M.

That doesn’t mean much though of course, as The Force Awakens has already topped James Cameron’s film for the all-time domestic box office crown. It’s now the third biggest film of all time, with $1.73 billion in the bank worldwide. With the United Kingdom number one slot now its grasp, the seventh Star Wars film continues to march towards global movie-going glory.

The top ten films grossed $140.6M which was up 34% from a year ago when Taken 3 debuted at number one with $39M; and up 25% from 2014 when Lone Survivor jumped into the top spot in its first weekend of wide release with $37.8M.

The last movie to top the North American box office for four straight weekends was “Furious 7” in April, Rentrak said.

Disney mounted a huge marketing campaign in China, flying in an army of 500 stormtroopers to line up on the Great Wall of China in October.

Thriller The Forest, starring Natalie Dormer and Taylor Kinney, grabbed $13.1 million for fourth place.

Still, Disney faces bigger hurdles in matching its USA success in China and other Asian countries, where the Star Wars franchise isn’t as well known or have as big a following as in Western countries.

Richard Huang, an analyst at Nomura Securities, expects the movie to roughly match the $229 million in Chinese box-office sales that “Jurassic World” generated a year ago.

The movie, beset by production issues as the cast and crew chased snowy conditions for the shoot, cost $135 million to make, a figure that doesn’t include marketing costs, according to Box Office Mojo.

Daddy’s Home, the latest comedy from Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg took in a very nice $15M this weekend for a new domestic total of $116.3M off of an estimated budget of $50M.

Fifth on the list was “Sisters”, with Amy Poehler and Tina Fey, which made $7.2 million in its fourth week out. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip, $US5.5 million ($US5.8 million) 9.