Star Wars: The Force Awakensis about to hit another milestone in its stellar box office run. Disney announced today that theJ.J. Abrams-helmed sequel will cross the $900 million mark at the domestic box office, making it the first film in history to do so. Moreover, on Saturday the film is expected to reach the $2 billion mark worldwide—a stunning achievement by any measure. That domestic mile-marker is particular striking, as it leavesAvatar’s second-place finish of $760.5 million in the dust, and will set a very high bar to cross. During its 50 days in release,Star Wars: The Force Awakenshas set a number of box office records, including:
However, one recordStar Warsis unlikely to set is the biggest of them all: highest grossing film of all time. Indeed,The Force Awakens’ global rollout has slowed considerably over the last few weeks, and even though it’s set to top $2 billion worldwide, it will fall quite short ofAvatar’s $2.78 billion record. It has already secured the #3 slot on the worldwide chart, but will need to rack up another $180 million and change to toppleTitanic’s worldwide gross of $2.186 billion.
This presents a fascinating dichotomy.The Force Awakensis far and away the highest grossing film of all time domestically, but internationally it didn’t have the same legs asAvatarandTitanic. A number of factors could account for this result, but it appears that folks were maybe a tad too bullish on the international crossover appeal of the iconic franchise.
Now $2 billion worldwide is nothing to scoff at, but more than many other recent massive blockbusters,Star Wars: The Force Awakenscarried the heft of its box office total here in the States, not abroad. In fact, its international total of $1.095 billion is not too far off from its $900 million domestic total. A 1:1 ratio of domestic to international is kind of unheard of nowadays, so that’s yet another curiosity in the continuing saga ofStar Warsunder Disney’s reign.
The Mouse House has alreadyaltered its release planson account of the smashing success ofThe Force Awakensin December—I’m still waiting on my commission—so it’ll be interesting to see how subsequentStar Warsfilms fare both domestically and abroad. Will the global appeal ofStar Warsincrease or decrease before the releases ofRogue OneandEpisode VIII? Can any sequel come close to the astounding success ofThe Force Awakens, or will the combination of nostalgia and the unknown prove to be a onetime phenomenon, leading to sizable but not astronomical numbers for the rest of the franchise? For that answer, we wait.
