“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” headed for $1 bn at int'l box office

PanARMENIAN.Net - Star Wars: The Force Awakens is headed for the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office faster than any film in history after shattering numerous records since it began opening a week ago, The Hollywood Reporter reveals.

J.J. Abrams' tentpole finished Wednesday, February 23 with $363.5 million domestically after earning $38.1 million from 4,134 theaters for the day, one of the best showings of all time (The Twilight Saga: Eclipse holds the record for the biggest Wednesday after posting an opening-day gross of $68.5 million in June 2010).

Overseas, Force Awakens earned another $38.4 million for a foreign tally of $400.4 million and global haul of $765.9 million. At this pace, the movie will cross the $1 billion mark sometime over Christmas weekend, or in 12 days or less. The current record holder is Jurassic World (13 days), which had the benefit of opening day and date in China. Force Awakens doesn't open there until Jan. 9.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens already ranks No. 3 on the list of top-grossing films in North America behind Jurassic World ($652.3 million) and Avengers: Age of Ultron ($459 million). On Wednesday, it overtook Minions ($336 million), Furious 7 ($353 million) and Inside Out ($356.5 million)

Abrams' critically acclaimed reboot, set 30 years after the events of Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi, features a strong female heroine in Rey, a young scavenger played by newcomer Daisy Ridley. Rey and a renegade stormtrooper (John Boyega) band together to challenge a rising evil that includes a new planet-killing laser cannon.

The film also stars Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, Lupita Nyong'o and Domhnall Gleeson, along with original trilogy stars Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher.

There's no telling how high Force Awakens will ultimately fly in terms of box-office revenue, since films over the year-end holidays can see huge multiples. James Cameron's Avatar opened to $77 million on the same weekend in 2009 on its way to becoming the top-grossing film of all time with $2.79 billion in global ticket sales, including $760.5 million domestically. And on the weekend before Christmas in 1996, Cameron's Titanic took in a mere $28.6 million on its way to grossing $2.19 billion worldwide.