Star Wars overtakes Jurassic World for third in global sales

Chinese box office figures are becoming more integral to the overall tally of films. “The Force Awakens” grossed an estimated $53 million in two days, the biggest Saturday-Sunday debut ever in that country. This makes it the first film to ever make more than $800 million, EW reports.

This weekend, Force Awakens will also sail past the $1.669 billion grossed worldwide by Jurassic World to become the No. 3 movie of all time behind Avatar ($2.78 billion) and Titanic ($2.19 billion), not accounting for inflation. Avatar’s all-time worldwide record of $2.788 million certainly isn’t out of range either. 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. The opening easily beat out industry predictions, which figured it for the mid-twenties. “This is a real, reality-based film drawn from true events”. It has made $46 million in total, which is a far cry from the last two collaborations Director David O. Russell had with Jennifer Lawrence. The board game features Luke Skywalker, Finn, Kylo Ren, and Darth Vader – yet, Darth Vader doesn’t physically appear in the film. Expanding from four screens to 3,375 the film netted a $2.3M Thursday on its way to rake in an estimated $38 million. That brought the film’s total earnings to $1.73 billion. The film also got backing from other firms including RatPac Entertainment.

Debuting at #4 was the low budget thriller “The Forest”, which mirrors prior January fright-fests “The Lady In Black 2′ and “Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones”. That’s a slip of 44% from last weekend. “The Forest”, $13.1 million ($450,000 international). 5. $100 million is an unlikely goal, but it may be able to reach $90 before it completes its run.

China is expected to surpass North America as the world’s largest movie market as soon as next year, and Hollywood is casting Chinese actors and incorporating Chinese elements to appeal to the massive audience. It sits in sixth place with $6.4 million. But it has to be considered a disappointing take at this point.

The Big Short is gaining award momentum and that’s translating to good holds at the box office. The financial crisis comedy with Brad Pitt, Ryan Gosling, Christian Bale and Steve Carell has earned $42.8 million.

“It’s very graphic, it’s very real”, said 20th Century Fox’s Chris Aronson.