Star Wars: The Force Awakens opened this past weekend, and just as everyone suspected, it broke box office records. After breaking the records for midnight screening ticket sales, advanced ticket sales, and opening day sales in the United Kingdom, the film broke yet another: this one a bit more global.
The highly anticipated film made $528 million worldwide in ticket sales – breaking the record set by Jurassic World earlier this year. Bob Iger, Walt Disney Co. Chairman and Chief Executive was surprised by the massive global reaction.
It’s bigger than big. It’s bigger than we thought it would be. And China has yet to open. So that’s an incredible weekend. And I must say it’s higher than we said yesterday.
The day before, Disney reported that The Force Awakens had made $517 million worldwide, falling just short of Jurassic World‘s $525 million. This did include domestic sales (sales calculated across Canada and the United States) of $238 million, which did break the US-Canada sales record, but was still shy of breaking the record globally.
Once it was confirmed that The Force Awakens did indeed break Jurassic World’s record, producer Frank Marshall tweeted out an image congratulating the team behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens on their success.
Cheers to J.J., Kathy, the cast and crew, and DIS/LFL marketing teams! #TheForceAwakens @Disney @StarWars @Bad_Robot pic.twitter.com/oa0zwuAb2Q
— Frank Marshall (@LeDoctor) December 21, 2015
This follows a pretty sweet tradition of filmmakers congratulating one another on their box office success, with one recent example involving Jurassic World. When that film beat the prior box office record set by The Avengers, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige tweeted out a congratulations tweet to the Jurassic World team.
Congrats Mr. Spielberg @UniversalPics @Legendary @LeDoctor @colintrevorrow and especially @prattprattpratt pic.twitter.com/5DxlDM8pgK
— Kevin Feige (@Kevfeige) June 16, 2015
Going back even further, when Star Wars: A New Hope beat the box office record formerly held by Jaws, Steven Spielberg took out a full page ad in Variety to offer his congratulations to pal George Lucas.
Facebook/The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Later, in 1982, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial was released, and usurped Star Wars as the box office ruler. After that happened, Lucas pulled a Spielberg, taking out a full page ad congratulating those involved in the film.
Variety
Lucas also congratulated James Cameron, when his Titanic beat the reissue of Star Wars to claim the box office sales record.
Variety
While the news of Star Wars: The Force Awakens‘ success isn’t all that surprising, especially to those who saw and loved the film, it still is impressive to see it boast such huge sales numbers. Which record do you think it will break next?
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