Last month, tickets finally went on sale for Disney and LucasFilm’s highly-anticipatedStar Wars: The Force Awakens. Despite a number of websites crashing after tickets became available, the sci-fi adventure set in a galaxy far, far away still managed to shatter theadvancedrecord for first day sales. While no exact figures were given,Star Wars: The Force Awakensearned eight times more than the previous record holder, 2012’sThe Hunger Games. Today,The Hollywood Reporterreveals that yet another record has been broken, with just under one month left untilStar Wars: The Force Awakenshits theaters.
Star Wars: The Force Awakenshas raked in a staggering $50 million+ in advanced ticket sales, which is twice as much as the previous record holder, 2012’sThe Dark Knight Rises. There are still 28 days left untilStar Wars: The Force Awakenshits theaters on December 18, so it wouldn’t be surprising if that $50 million tally keeps growing and growing. Sources claim that nearly a third of the $50 million pre-sales figure comes fromIMAXtheaters alone. Withbox officerecords already being broken, many wonder ifStar Wars: The Force Awakenscan break even more during opening weekend.
Earlier this summer,Jurassic WorldbrokeMarvel’s The Avengers' three-year record for highest-grossing opening weekend, taking in $208.8. Back in August, box office analysts predicted thatStar Wars: The Force Awakenscould take in $300 million domestically and $315 internationally during its opening weekend.Jurassic Worldbecame the first movie ever to earn over $500 million globally during its first weekend, earning $208.8 million domestically and $315.3 million internationally in its opening weekend, for a worldwide haul of $524.4 million. All three of those figures setnew records, but it seems they all may fall next month.
The sequel will be shown in 390 IMAX theaters when it opens on December 18, but it still isn’t known what the final theater count may be. The current record for widest theatrical release belongs to 2010’sThe Twilight Saga: Eclipse, which debuted in 4,468 theaters. Given the levels of anticipation forStar Wars: The Force Awakens, it wouldn’t be surprising if this record is broken as well. The first day IMAX sales forStar Wars: The Force Awakenswere $6.5 million, a staggering figure considering IMAX had never had more than $1 million in pre-sales in just one day before.
In case you still haven’t gotten your tickets forStar Wars: The Force Awakensyet, ticket retailers claim there are still plenty of tickets available for opening weekend. Do you thinkStar Wars: The Force Awakenshas a chance at breaking $300 million in one weekend? If that does happen, it may also have a chance at dethroningJames Cameron’sAvatar, which still holds the all time domestic ($760.5 million) and worldwide ($2.78 billion) records. We’ll keep you posted ifStar Wars: The Force Awakenskeeps breaking even more records en route to the December 18 release.
