‘Force Awakens’ grosses $53 million in China, now third biggest movie ever

Star Wars: The Force Awakens opened today in China, with an estimated $32.1 million, according to ChinaBoxOffice.

It’s global gross now sits at around $1,733,834,828, and considering the film has just opened in highly profitable Chinese theatres, don’t be surprised if it manages to topple Titanic (number two) and Avatar (number one).

On Monday, the film generated about $5.3 million by 6 pm, less than 60 percent of the day’s total box office receipts, according to Li.

Disney noted that “The Force Awakens” also was in record territory in key European markets – the highest grossing film ever in the United Kingdom, and number three within Europe.

Over the week The Force Awakens cruised past Avatar to be the highest ever grossing domestic movie and this weekend it cleared another landmark: first movie to ever break $800 million. The Revenant, a gritty R-rated movie directed by Alejandro Inarritu about an 1820s frontiersman who gets mauled by a bear, blasted through expectations of about $US25 million in its first weekend of wide release with a $US38 million haul, following limited showings in NY and Los Angeles in December. It is the fourth-biggest opening of all-time for DiCaprio and his fifth in a row to top $30 million in a 3,000 theater-plus release.

Not many Chinese are familiar with “Star Wars”.

“Star Wars” posted huge opening weekend numbers in China, the world’s second largest film market, where it debuted Saturday.

Third place at the box office went to “Daddy’s Home”, a sharp-edged comedy about the uncomfortable competition between a stepfather, played by Will Ferrell, and the biological father, Mark Wahlberg.

Meanwhile, Focus Features’ Gramercy label introduced its new horror film “The Forest”, starring “Game of Thrones” actress Natalie Dormer, which grossed a better-than-expected $13.1 million. That said, Abrams has also confirmed that there are no plans to put out an extended version of the film on disc. We may get deleted scenes when the DVD and Blu-ray come around, though, but nothing has been announced thus far.

Oscar hopefuls The Hateful Eight and The Big Short had a photo finish to end the weekend for spots No. 6 and 7 on the list as both made approximately $6.3M with Tarantino’s western performing a hair better with an extra $51k.