Star Wars: The Force Awakens Rakes In $1 Billion In Just 12 Days
Everyone predicted that Star Wars: The Force Awakens would do well, but the movie is doing even better than expected. After just 12 days, the sci-fi reboot was able to take in $1 billion globally. That makes The Force Awakens the fastest film to reach the $1 billion mark, as the Washington Post points out.
The previous fastest film to reach $1 billion was Jurassic World, which was able to reach the number after 13 days. Though Jurassic World, which came out in June, did well, it was no match for the sequel to the films that changed cinema.
As the AP reported, Jurassic World was released in China, which gave it a significant boost in profits, as China is the second largest movie market. Disney’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens has not yet been released in China, making the 12-day rush to $1 billion all the more impressive.
The newest Star Wars film has already set a host of new records. Over its opening weekend, the movie raked in $238 million in North America. The previous record-holder was, once again, Universal’s Jurassic World.
The film also set a new record for the highest Christmas Day gross with $49.3 million. As Vanity Fair reported, this feat was even more impressive considering the film’s competition on Christmas Day.
“David O. Russell’s Joy, Concussion, Point Break, and Daddy’s Home all opened nationwide on Christmas, while select theaters screened Quentin Tarantino’sThe Hateful Eight and Alejandro G. Inarritu’s The Revenant.”
Currently, Jurassic World has a global total of $1.7. Once the latest Star Wars is released in China on January 9, it will likely surpass Jurassic World’s global total fairly quickly.
Avatar still holds the number one spot with a global total of $2.8 billion. Though Star Wars: The Force Awakens is quite a ways from besting Avatar, it might be able to surpass it, especially considering it has yet to be released in the huge market of China.
What made The Force Awakens such a success? There are many reasons why a certain film does well and why others don’t. One reason, as Brent McKnight of CinemaBlend pointed out, is that The Force Awakens has a pretty interesting storyline.
“The Force Awakens is going to reflect 30 plus years of that struggle, which will be an interesting story indeed. The Empire splintered in the aftermath of Jedi, and now a new faction, The First Order, has risen to prominence; the Rebel Alliance became the New Republic, but now they’re known as The Resistance.”
The return of the original cast members: Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, and Harrison Ford are also a likely another reason why so many people were interested in the movie. After all, the three stars mentioned above are the ones that made fans fall in love with Star Wars in the first place.
Since The Force Awakens is the sequel to The Return of the Jedi, many fans of the originals were interested in it. A lot of the fans of the original trilogy were let down by the prequels that were released in the late 90s and early 2000s. The Force Awakens was marketed as a reboot of the originals and a film that would be far removed from the prequels.
Another reason the movie did so well is because it was promoted masterfully. Practically everyone, everywhere knew about The Force Awakens well in advance of its release. Even the White House took part in the Star Wars promotion.
[Photo by Jonathan Short / AP]
