‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ grosses $120.5 million to start
Standing next to his wife, who was decked out in an R2-D2 hoodie, Chris Barreno was getting ready Saturday for his second viewing of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” at a theater in in El Segundo, Calif.
The Long Beach accountant, his wife, Monique Matta, and her extended family were among the legions of fans decked out in their “Star Wars” gear and novelty 3-D glasses for the seventh “Star Wars” movie, which has already amassed record-breaking box-office numbers.
J.J. Abrams’ highly anticipated take on George Lucas’ franchise collected an estimated $120.5 million in its first day, including $57 million for Thursday night preview shows, making it the highest single day on record, according to Walt Disney Co. The tally topped the previous record holder, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2,” which grossed $91 million from its Thursday and Friday shows in July 2011.
“The Force Awakens” has already grossed more than $250 million worldwide.
“It far exceeded my expectations,” said Barreno, a fan of the space saga since he saw “The Empire Strikes Back” when he was 2. He noted that he and his wife were looking to parse out more details they might have missed when they first saw the new film.
“You go into it cautiously optimistic, hopeful that they make a good movie, and with the new cast and characters they really did a good job. It’s one of the better ones … and it gives you something to look forward to for the next few movies.”
The numbers for “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” are unprecedented for a film premiering in December. The record holder for the biggest opening during the month is “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” which took in $85 million in domestic receipts in 2012.
Audience polling firm CinemaScore gave the new release an A grade, including an A-plus among women and younger audiences. It also earned a 95 percent fresh rating from RottenTomatoes.
The space opera, which mixes old veterans with new faces and sees the evil Empire replaced by the even more evil First Order, opened wide domestically on Thursday, showing in 4,134 theaters, a December record itself.
“The Force Awakens” was expected to gross $180 million to $220 million through Sunday in its domestic opening weekend. However, those numbers began to look like conservative estimates after the Thursday and Friday screenings.
At that rate, the long-awaited space epic is poised to out-earn Universal’s reboot, “Jurassic World,” which broke the record for the biggest domestic opening by selling $208.8 million in tickets in June.
And while many analysts expected the film to collect $1.5 billion to $2 billion globally, “The Force Awakens” is now predicted to gross $2.6 billion worldwide. That would make it the second-highest grossing picture of all time, trailing only 2009’s “Avatar,” which took in $2.8 billion worldwide.
––
(Times staff writers Richard Verrier, Ryan Faughnder, Meredith Woerner and Daniel Miller contributed to this report.)
This story was originally published December 19, 2015 at 11:42 PM with the headline "‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ grosses $120.5 million to start."