Star Wars Continues To Steamroll Competition As It Surpasses $700 Million Domestically

For context, it took “Avatar” 72 days to reach $700 million.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens, directed by J.J. Abrams from a screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan & Abrams, features a cast including actors John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Academy Award victor Lupita Nyong’o, Gwendoline Christie, Crystal Clarke, Pip Andersen, Domhnall Gleeson, and Max von Sydow.

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

With $1.510 billion total, The Force Awakens is poised to pass Furious 7 ($1.515 billion) and Avengers ($1.519 billion). Depending on how enthusiastically it is received in the People’s Republic, “The Force Awakens” could shoot past “Avatar’s” record $2.8 billion global haul.

What’s more, the space opera has yet to come out in China – ranked as the world’s second-largest movie market – and will not open in the Far East country until January 9.

Daddy’s Home stayed at #2 closing out New Year’s weekend with $29-M from 3,342 locations for a domestic take of $93.7-M for partners Paramount and Red Granite Pictures. The film has earned $61.7 million so far. Even more formidable is the mere 11 percent drop from the Tina Fey and Amy Poehler comedy “Sisters”, which brought in $12.6 million in its third weekend for a fourth-place spot.

Taking the weekend’s third spot was the violent, three-hour “Hateful Eight”, grossing $16.2 million.

Fifth is “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip”, also in its third week, with $11.8 million.

Last weekend, the seventh “Star Wars” sequel took in a record $149 million and topped the Will Ferrell-Mark Wahlberg comedy by about $110 million. “It just barely missed setting the North American record this weekend by catching (up to) Avatar“.