Star Wars: The Force Awakens Clears $900 Million in America & $2 Billion Worldwide.

The Money Awakens

Star Wars: The Force Awakens has officially become the third film to make $2 billion worldwide, and the second film to make that much money in a single release. In the United States alone, it just crossed the $900 million mark (which will make it the first movie do accomplish such a feat).

 

From Entertainment Weekly:

“This is a historic moment for Star Wars, for Lucasfilm, and for Disney, and all of us here are extremely gratified to be a part of this journey with fans around the world who have made Star Wars: The Force Awakens such an extraordinary success,” Disney chairman Alan Horn said in a statement. “The film’s achievements are truly astounding, and it’s our great honor to relaunch this cinematic galaxy not only for all the devoted decades-long fans but for a new generation who will keep the Star Wars legacy alive for many years to come.”

The movie has made $2 billion in a mere 53 days worldwide, and it only took 50 of those days for the movie to reach $900 million in the United States. While attendance is winding down as the movie starts to leave theaters, that’s still a pretty mind-blowing accomplishment. Other illustrious financial accomplishments by the film include a $125 million run in China and a $600 million run in all of Europe.

 

It should also be worth noting that the Lucasfilm effectively finished what George Lucas started by means of making a Star Wars movie that outgrossed Titanic (or rather, Titanic‘s gross before it was re-released in 3-D). Perhaps if the movie is re-released a few decades from now, it could completely beat Titanic‘s record. And while it couldn’t reach Avatar‘s heights, it was a less expensive film to make, meaning that Lucasfilm will probably end up walking away with larger profits than Twentieth Century Fox did when merchandise sales are taken into account.

 

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Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.

Grant Davis (Pomojema)

Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.

67 thoughts on “Star Wars: The Force Awakens Clears $900 Million in America & $2 Billion Worldwide.

  • February 7, 2016 at 9:53 pm
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    That’s pretty darn awesome actually, especially considering that it accomplished this in roughly 50 days. Astonishing, really.

  • February 7, 2016 at 10:19 pm
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    interesting that it made almost half its cash here in the states. i guess star wars isn’t quite as big in the rest of the globe.

    • February 7, 2016 at 10:26 pm
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      It’s actually not very surprising. It’s been long known that SW wasn’t a massive property in certain countries, such as China or Japan.

      Regardless…this is only 53 days in. That in itself is a massive accomplishment.

      • February 7, 2016 at 10:50 pm
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        i see. i guess if it doesn’t have cars jumping from building to building it doesn’t do well in asia. 😉

        • February 7, 2016 at 11:49 pm
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          Apparently, the speeder chase in AotC was a bit ahead of it’s time? 😉

      • February 7, 2016 at 11:30 pm
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        Star Wars is huge in Japan.

        • February 7, 2016 at 11:50 pm
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          I lived there for 7 years…it has a large fan base, but it’s not THAT big there.

          • February 7, 2016 at 11:52 pm
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            It was the Number 1 movie at thier box office for six weeks. Dem legs.

          • February 7, 2016 at 11:55 pm
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            Nice! So there was nothing of consequence opening against it, much like here then.
            I used to love going to the local theater where I lived in Japan…cold draft beers and nice comfy seats – a great way to watch a movie.

          • February 8, 2016 at 1:35 pm
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            Agreed! lol

          • February 8, 2016 at 1:34 pm
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            I just visited family and friends this past Winter in Japan, believe me when I say Japan loves Star Wars lol. They all asked me about it and we talked about the older films as well. I also saw it a second time because my friends asked me if I wanted to see it again.

      • February 8, 2016 at 6:58 am
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        Japan is the only Asia location where official LFL SW convention was held.
        Lucasfilm acknowledged popularity there , both Kathleen Kennedy and Daisy Ridely visited there for promotion TWICE in 2015. Also during the time of OT, PT, Lucas frequently visited there.

    • February 7, 2016 at 10:41 pm
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      It broke records (almost every opening weekend record for instance) in some european countries aswell. Its mostly Asia where it underperformed.

      • February 8, 2016 at 11:16 pm
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        Underperformed? You people are flat out making stuff up, TFA is not underperforming internationally, on the contrary TFA is by far no contest the fastest movie to surpass 1 billion, and it has already surpassed 2 billion, meaning it has brought in global totals to date, that Avatar only accomplished after 8 months.

        That nearly half of that money is domestic gross is not a sign that it’s doing poorly overseas, it’s a sign that it’s doing better domestically than any film since Titanic.

        Y’all keep coming in here without even looking at the numbers. Boxofficemojo.com does all the homework for you, quit being lazy.

        • February 9, 2016 at 12:49 pm
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          Maybe read my comment before barking a response please.
          I said TFA is underperforming in ASIA. If you discovered boxofficemojo (congratulations, I’ve been following almost daily it since 2003) than you can easely see that it only made 124 million in China (contrary to Furious 7’s 390 million) and only 4,5 million in India (contrary to Furious 7’s 24 million). So we can easely draw the conclusion that it underperformed in Asia, as I said.
          Next time do the homework and read the comment better before replying, to prevent embarassing yourself in the future, like you did now.

          • February 9, 2016 at 3:28 pm
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            You do know that there has been global deflation everywhere but in America, AND that China is suffering a pretty big recession, right?

          • February 9, 2016 at 4:23 pm
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            That recession (which isnt a big recession, but a slowdown in the growth) does not affect the economy so much to recess the movie industry aswell (yet) in China. In contrary analysist prognose Chia to become the no 1. market in a couple of years, so there is still a significant growth in that industry every year. Furious 7 managed to make 390 million in april, jurassic world made 228 in june.
            SW 7 was projected to make anything between 200 to 400 million. Even the most pessimist analysts estimated it to make at least 150 million.
            Considering how much Disney spent on marketing there, 125 million is a huge underperformance.
            Star Wars is just not as big there as it is in europe (especially in the UK) or in the US.

          • February 9, 2016 at 10:42 pm
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            The thing is, for a (basically) new franchise, it’s not under-performance. It’s realistic and normal.

  • February 7, 2016 at 10:28 pm
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    Most U.S made block buster films make about 40% to 45% of their profit in the states and the rest is spread through out the rest of the world. Check out http://www.boxofficemojo.com/ and you’ll see what i’m talking about.

  • February 7, 2016 at 11:05 pm
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    Thats awesome! I didn’t think it would beat avatar (not a fair comparison IMO) but I thought it would cross 2 billion eventually. But how fast it did was utterly astonishing. Now with this kind of exposure, Rian J. is set up to potentially knock episode 8 into legendary status if his movie is even better than episode 7.

    • February 7, 2016 at 11:37 pm
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      Wait what? I’m not one of those trolls who want to polemize on others’ comments, but… are you suggesting that you prefer avatar to star wars, and saying that on a starwars fan site, or did you mean something else?

      • February 7, 2016 at 11:52 pm
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        The two wouldn’t be a fair financial comparison because Avatar was a perfect money-making storm that will never be re-created.

        • February 8, 2016 at 12:34 am
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          got it

  • February 7, 2016 at 11:53 pm
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    Simply astounding.

  • February 8, 2016 at 12:07 am
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    I can’t figure out how to use the cantina, so I’ll say what I want to say here:

    People are theorizing that Snoke was Plagues and was resurrected after his death, but if so, how could the trilogy possibly end? Smoke could reemerge again and again, so why bother to kill him? I think that Snoke was never dead in the first place, but was nearly killed by the emperor.

    • February 8, 2016 at 2:50 pm
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      Don’t expect anyone to bite here on this. There are two threads and scores of pages devoted to this very subject in the Cantina. I suggest you figure out how to use it if you want to talk about this. Then, get yourself a comfy char and your favorite beverage and prepare for a large novel’s worth of reading about this subject.

  • February 8, 2016 at 12:12 am
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    If other countries’ currency was stronger against the dollar (like they were when Avatar released), it would have made even MORE money on top of this. That’s insane.

  • February 8, 2016 at 12:15 am
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    Fuck Avatar and Titanic, they both were bad movies that the causals loved

    • February 8, 2016 at 1:29 am
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      Oh No not casuals!! That’s a really dumb stupid idiotic thing to say.

    • February 8, 2016 at 2:23 am
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      “Fuck Avatar and Titanic, they both were bad movies that the causals loved”

      That sounds a lot like The Force Awakens. Don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed it overall, but I wouldn’t be talking smack about Cameron’s films in light of the new Star Wars one.

      • February 8, 2016 at 2:34 am
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        i guess this site is full of “casuals” then. 😉

        • February 8, 2016 at 2:36 am
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          That’s not important. What matters are the casuals who helped push TFA over the $2 billion mark.

          • February 8, 2016 at 2:54 am
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            helped, sure. but they didn’t go see it seven times in imax. 🙂

          • February 8, 2016 at 7:48 am
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            They don’t need to. They’ve got the numbers to keep it down to two tops. ;P

      • February 8, 2016 at 10:19 pm
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        If your implying that The Force Awakens was a causal fest movie, I would have to disagree

        • February 9, 2016 at 9:57 am
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          Lots of hardcore fans love this film, obviously. However, they wouldn’t have been able to get TFA anywhere near $2 billion on their own.

      • February 27, 2016 at 6:32 pm
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        Haha nope.

    • February 8, 2016 at 11:22 pm
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      Titanic was very good.

    • February 9, 2016 at 8:03 am
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      “Casual”?

  • February 8, 2016 at 3:42 am
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    These records are largely meaningless. Titanic held the top spot for a good near decade and a half while Avatar has had it for about 6. As we approach the era of 20 dollar ticket prices with more moviegoers/theaters being built globally it becomes easier and easier to break box office stats like this. Though I think what happened here was a great deal of the business was by repeat fan goers.

    • February 8, 2016 at 6:21 am
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      True, these stats should be based on number of tickets sold, not price of tickets sold.

      • February 8, 2016 at 9:57 am
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        Yup. Empire is the lowest grossing film in the saga but still considered the best by most in every area.

        • February 8, 2016 at 8:40 pm
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          TFA sold 104 million tickets so far, ESB 98 milion. Only ANH is higher in the franchise with 178 million.

          • February 9, 2016 at 10:19 am
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            But do you not understand there are faaaarrrrrrrrr more patrons than nearly 40 years both in the US and especially globally. Why do you think shit like Fast And The Furious or Transformers are on the top list?

          • February 9, 2016 at 12:38 pm
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            1, the ticket sale numbers (the 104, 98 and 178 million) are US only. We dont know the global numbers.
            2, Its actually a lot harder nowadays to sell tickets because 40 years ago cinema didnt have so many competition (not to mention the torrent versions of the movie) and the prices are also a lot higher.
            Furious 7 is only 40 million, and the highest Transformers sold ,,only” 53 million tickets.

            The 104 million of TFA is immensly succesful, there hasnt been such success since Titanic (1997).

          • February 10, 2016 at 10:10 am
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            1. Probably never will either, I mean how do they accurately track it in closed off nations like China where everything is manipulated?

            2. Yes, But this film in addition to having the largest fanbase in the world (and longest running next to possibly Star Trek) also opened on the most screens as well and had the most showings to boot.

            I’m not denying it was successful but even if the execs at the Mouse never openly admit, They really wanted the bragging rights of the top spot and if ever there was a film made to it this was it.

            Like I said above, The sad thing is that I just know some horrible YA film will eventually overthrow Avatar in a few years and no one will give a crap about it like Avatar by the end of the decade.

    • February 8, 2016 at 8:09 am
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      No offense but you have no idea what you are talking about, these records are not meaningless. Sure Titanic held that top spot for a decade, Titanic also made it’s take in a very slow crawl spending over 41 weeks in theaters. The Force Awakens when adjusted for inflation, is just a little more than 125,800,000 shy of Titanic’s overall box office take after 41 weeks. It took Titanic 5 weeks longer to get where The Force Awakens is today.

      In other words you’re out of your mind if you think this isn’t a huge success worth talking about, it’s not every day that or even every decade that a film is on the fast track to the top ten, let alone the 7th sequel in a film series well past it’s glory days.

      The film is doing really great, it’s a huge success, if it has legs (and surely this film will stay in theaters at least past spring) there is a good chance it will surpass Titanic when adjusted for inflation. Meaning it will be the 5th highest grossing film of all time putting it right behind E.T. in total ticket sales.

      • February 8, 2016 at 10:09 am
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        Um, You can’t be more wrong in every respect on this. Considering the sale of 3D, IMAX, and the fact that more theaters exist globally as well as film goers it fell short of their ultimate expectations but Disney has never lacked the ability to spin numbers into a victory. I’m sure plenty of them have gone into politics with those kinds of skills.

        Did you not read what I said about repeat business? The fanboys drove this gross and their families and not the non-fan going general public who this film was made exclusively for in every aspect.

        Not sure if you understand basic math either but there are FAR more ticketbuyers in 2016 than 1977 making it pretty simple to reach those numbers, Especially with the rise of the middle class in developing nations. To say nothing of the quadrupling of big screens and megaplexes since the 70’s. Again 3D and IMAX were not a thing then either. Oh yeah 12 dollar tickets weren’t one as well.

        People went to see it because it was marketed as the anti-prequel and a direct sequel to the OT with the og cast and not due to the film being so fantastic though I’m sure there band wagon jumpers like with Avatar and Titanic who wanted to see what the hype was about who have no intention of seeing the rest of the trilogy.

        Watch what happens with VIII and IX then when it falls far short of these numbers. This is the same logicless arguement when everyone said the PT brought in new fans and II fell far short of I’s numbers. III did a little better but still not as good as TPM which largely profited off decades worth of hype ala TFA.

        Remember the Matrix and Pirates trilogies of the 00’s? They did gangbusters business then too and I can’t find you two people who give a shit about them today.

        • February 8, 2016 at 10:26 am
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          No everything I said is a fact, easily googled and verified at that. Just fucking go to Boxofficemojo.com you ignorant blowhard. And maybe learn how to use a calculate.

          • February 8, 2016 at 4:45 pm
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            Reading both arguments (which are needlessly hostile but ok) I think both of you have points. To say that TFA wasn’t a tremendous accomplishment in this day and age doesn’t make sense. If less people are going and waiting til home theater market, blowing away box office records by 150 million is saying something. That being said, it doesn’t appear to have the legs Avatar (bewildering) had and it is acting like a typical blockbuster now. It won’t beat worldwide estimates and I think it was because Avatar was a theater going experience because of the 3d. Avatar kicked off the current 3d crap we are still enduring.

            TFA is doing well though and it’s start, especially for December, was insane. 247 mil opening weekend? amazing. But Titanic/Avatar holds? Not as much.Comparing to 1997 or 1977 I think is meaningless because the markets were so different then as opposed to now. For instance, they’ve already put out pre-orders for the blu-ray and digital. Maybe if they hadn’t done that, it would’ve held longer?

            Anyway, I wouldn’t go crazy on the legs it’s had. They’ve been good but not like what Titanic/Avatar’s were. But it’s overall performance was amazing and there is no taking away from that either. 900 domestic is not easy to make and won’t happen again for a long time.

          • February 8, 2016 at 10:33 pm
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            No offense but you like Snark over here are throwing in your two cents without even looking at the numbers.

            #1 It is only a recent phenomenon that studios really prioritized global markets as much if not more in some cases than domestic.

            #2 TFA has already out performed Avatar’s total domestic gross in a fraction of the time.

            #3

            I provided you with all the links you need to check out the numbers yourself even did you the extra favor of listing all the details here so you wouldn’t ‘t even have to click them.

            Hostile? Yes because it’s super fucking annoying when you’re informed and people who aren’t act like their opinion is just as valuable as the cold hard facts you spent so much time laying down. I didn’t even give you my opinion. The fact of the matter is that TFA is completely outperforming Titanic and Avatar by pure numbers and within the same time frame.

            Your assertion that the TFA is slowing down at the box office and won’t have legs is just your opinion it is not backed up by any of the data.

          • February 9, 2016 at 10:52 am
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            I never denied the numbers anywhere, That’s you reading what you wanted to believe. I did say that there are MAJOR factors that affect those numbers that you still cannot comprehend in spite of me repeatedly spelling them out for you in bold neon radioactive motherfucking letters.

            What part of most anticipated and marketed film of all-time do you not understand? If any film in film history should have taken the number one spot it was this one but it didn’t.

            You are going to feel awfully stupid when a lesser film nabs it in the next few years and pisses all over it’s numbers.

            Btw, Twilight, Fast And The Furious/ and numerous shitty MCU films are alongside TFA on that list. You honestely think those are decent films by any margin? They are corporate product like this one from head to toe marketed to the lowetst common denominator of the film going public. Are you even familiar with PT Barnum?

        • February 8, 2016 at 11:15 am
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          To put it very plainly: The Force Awakens only needs to gross a little more than 1/3rd more of it’s current domestic gross to have sold more tickets in it’s original theatrical run than any other films in history except for The Original Star Wars and Gone With the Wind. That’s not hyperbole, that’s the actual numbers dude.

          So basically you’re wrong. Deal with it.

          • February 8, 2016 at 2:57 pm
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            You can probably mic drop after that.

          • February 8, 2016 at 6:52 pm
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            Right I don’t think I could possibly defend this film anymore from a pure financial stand point, but isn’t it amazing how easily you can wow people with your knowledge of box office by just having a few charts from boxoffice mojo open and using a calculator?

            You can track all kinds of records that nobody even thought to keep, such as The Force Awakens is by far the single greatest success of JJ Abrams career as a writer, producer or director. Having grossed grossed well over 3 times as much money in a shorter period of time than Abrams’ next most successful film.

            Moreover, The Force Awakens has more than quadrupled it’s budget in profits accounting only for domestic sales, whereas Abrams’ next most successful film Star Trek, managed to gross only 2.5 times it’s total budget in total worldwide ticket sales. Solidifying Abrams’ place as a total hack incapable of making a successful original film, whose name is not a significant factor attributing the The Force Awaken’s success. Combining all box office receipts from every film JJ Abrams is credited as writer, director or producer, The Force Awakens still manages to account for well over 40% of total box office receipts, when accounting for inflation, respectfully.

          • February 9, 2016 at 10:44 am
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            It’s pretty clear you are either illiterate or jerk off to reading your own posts from how you missed every point I made and how they negate all of yours.

            For starters, Look at the population of both the US and the nations it performed well in. Okay, I’ll spell it out since you simply lack the grey matter to understand this. The film going population is waaaaaayyyyyyyyy higher than it was back in the old days. Not only that but a lot of the third world nations now have a burgoning middle class that couldn’t afford to see tickets in the old days. Are you actually retarded enough to think ANH was shown in China back in the 70’s? Better get that GED if you don’t understand that.

            “I’m not idiot that isn’t aware”? Do you even read what garbage you post before typing or does it flow out of your maw unconciously like diaherra?

            No, Son. You looked at the numbers and spun them into your own narrative because you are the white knight this film neither needs nor wants. You’d have a great future in corporate marketing at the tobacco companies or running a doomed political campaign with such a loose grip on reasoning like that.

            In the US yes but not internationally where it’s still a thing. You again forget that even if EVERY person went to see the OT that America’s general populace was far less than today by giant fucking margins. We have millions of people here who aren’t even included in the census. Kinda affects the numbers doncha think?

            Hahaha! I get it now, This film is your proverbial participation trophy. It didn’t break the all-time record dude when ALL the ingridients were there to do so. The PT didn’t either even though it had the same potential.

            You weren’t around in the 70’s so I can forgive your extreme ignorance but there was next to ZERO advertising for ANH, Do you think everyone was clamoring for a film like that then? TFA was the most hyped motion picture in world cinema history (save maybe for TPM, maybe) which makes it’s failure to take the crown even more glaring.

            I was there, Kiddo! Luxary theaters were nowhere near as common and megaplexes were virtually non-existant. Star Wars was largely looked on for geeks even in those days where today it’s as mainstream as it gets.

            TPM did awesome too, You think because it was a great film. LOL! Little boy, Do you think any fan wanted to see a film about trade disputes or in this case a ANH remake? Absolutely not, They went in 1999 because they wanted to see the backstory and last year because they wanted to know what happened after Jedi. Prepare to be proven wrong yet again when VIII and IX underperform just as II and III did.

  • February 8, 2016 at 7:52 am
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    Avatar is embarrassingly bad. Talk about a Movie that did NOT hold up well at all LOL

    • February 8, 2016 at 5:23 pm
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      Yeah. I sort of enjoyed it when I saw it in the theater, but I don’t have the desire to ever watch it again. That’s my litmus test: if I like the movie enough, I’ll sit down at some point in the future for another viewing. I’ve seen Titanic a few times. I consider it a good movie. Avatar? Eh. It’s okay. But just okay.

      • February 8, 2016 at 10:08 pm
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        Exactly. Both of my parents saw the movie, but when I told them about Avatar 2, they had absolutely no desire to see such an “average” movie again.

    • February 8, 2016 at 11:41 pm
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      I wouldn’t call Avatar “embarrassingly bad”, but I would agree it does not hold up. I have never been able to sit through it a second time. I don’t think there is a massive number of Avatar fans out there that are anxious for Avatar 2 (or 3 and 4 for that matter). Avatar was the success it was because at the time it broke ground in 3D technology and was visually stunning….no one had seen anything like it before. People went to just experience the visuals. Now those visuals are a dime a dozen. Unless James Cameron manages to knock our socks off with a new visual experience, I don’t think any of the Avatar sequels will even match half the success of the original, nor ever reach the mass following of the Star Wars films.

  • February 8, 2016 at 2:09 pm
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    Avatar had a 6 month run to get where it did. SW7 has smashed it in under 2. Doubt it will be given the same time to beat Avatar but doesn’t matter it did great and we will be getting more films so its all good.

  • February 8, 2016 at 6:15 pm
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    There was a programme on UK tv a couple of years ago that showed the top 100 films of all time – based on tickets sold alone, not money taken. What was really interesting was that most of the top ten were films that no one would have heard of but loads of people saw… why? they were all released during WW2 and were just churned out and disposable.. no one had anywhere else to go and no tv to watch at home and it was a release from the war going on outside… I dont think avatar or titanic made the top 10.

  • February 8, 2016 at 6:37 pm
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    Good gooood.

  • February 8, 2016 at 6:38 pm
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    They really should have released a teaser for rogue 1 on Super Bowl

    • February 8, 2016 at 7:02 pm
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      Would have been a tremendously smart move and given TFA a significant boost no doubt.

  • February 9, 2016 at 1:25 am
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    At least it beat Avatar domestically.

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