Star Wars: The Force Awakens earned another $8 million yesterday, basically dead even with Monday's $8m gross. This brings its domestic total to $758.2m and puts it within $2.5m of Avatar's all-time domestic grosses record, which means said record will fall sometime today, possibly as early as by the time you finish reading this post. So pop the champagne and unleash the balloons, Star Wars: The Force Awakens is now the highest-grossing movie of all time in America. Impressive, most impressive, and this will indeed be a day long-remembered.
For the first time in 18 years, James Cameron does have not have title to himself. And for the first time in 40 years, James Cameron, George Lucas, or Steven Spielberg does not hold claim to said record. Although considering that Abrams was basically a student of Spielberg and Cameron and was inspired to be a filmmaker after seeing Star Wars, you might argue that "the circle is complete." So where does it go from here?
If the film does (total spit balling here), another $14 million on Wednesday and Thursday and another over/under $50m weekend (the current record holder for the biggest fourth weekend is Avatar's $50m frame four), then it ends its 24th day with around $820m domestic. That means it will not just top Avatar's actual domestic gross today, but it will surpass, early in its fourth weekend, the $777 million"adjusted-for-inflation" gross of Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace from way back in 1999 (and of course its 2012 3D reissue). It should also become the first film to gross $800m in America sometime on Saturday, give or take the variables.
For those asking, the adjusted-for-inflation gross of Avatar is $836 million, which The Force Awakens will eventually surpass perhaps towards the end of
Obviously worldwide is an entirely different question, as it will probably have to settle for being the third or second-biggest global hit of all time, behind Cameron's Titanic ($2.186 billion) and Cameron's Avatar ($2.788b). The film has earned a whopping $1.557b worldwide thus far, including $799m overseas alone. Avatar is a presumably unreachable plateau at this point, as the film has thus-far been doing around 48/52 US/overseas business. So if it ends at around $2b worldwide without China, it would have to do an insane $788m in China alone (starting on Saturday), nearly double the current high for an American title (Furious 7 with $394m). Quite simply, we have no idea how well the film will play in what is the second-biggest theatrical market, as Star Wars has always been something of an American phenom. Apples to oranges of course, but I don't exactly expect Monster Hunt to break any domestic
Before we sign out for the day, a moment of acknowledgement that this record-breaking domestic run wasn't anything resembling a foregone conclusion. Had the film not really delivered in an audio/visual and character-centric fashion, and had Walt Disney not done their marketing magic to make Star Wars not just an event again but a defining movie event even in a world filled with Star Wars-like blockbuster franchises, we wouldn't be having this specific conversation. Oh sure, the film was always going to be a big hit, especially with that December release date, but a $247.8 million opening weekend and an over/under $900m domestic total means that the movie worked beyond the hardcore fans and beyond the opening weekend hype. The film delivered, the marketing made it a must-see event, and everything clicked into place.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens has been in American theaters for just 20 days, and J.J. Abrams, Walt Disney, and Lucasfilm have returned the series to the top of the box office mountain. They have created and marketed one of the most "seen in theaters" hits of all time in an era when movie theaters are no longer at the top of the entertainment food chain and movies no longer dominate the water cooler conversation. They have gotten countless older fans back on board after decades of indifference or discontent while hooking younger fans along for the ride. They have changed the conversation about what kind of actors and what kind of characters can headline said event films while proving that you can make a monster hit out of a known entity without spoiling the movie before its release date. Next time, I still dare them to do better.
Your move, James Cameron.
