Fastest Film to $500M

Big films make big money at the boxoffice then sequels are ordered. Disney has done something a little different at their Lucasfilms division. They ordered six films, set release dates, one per year, then made and released the films.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens hit theatres Dec 18, two weekends ago, and opening night was so huge theatres were scrambling to add showings. A record breaking $247.9 Million in its first three days, cracked $300 Million on Tuesday and $400 Million on Friday. Now the big $500 Million domestic record was smashed on Sunday, the 10th day of the film's release. It took Jurassic World 17 day to make that point and the first Avengers film 23 days. The alltime record holding film of North American and worldwide box-office is 2009's Avatar, which broke $500 Million in 32 days, and $600 Million 15 days later.


Star Wars: The Force Awakens should cross the $600 Million line on Wednesday and mid-way through next weekend we should see the passing of the $700 Million mark. Avatar finished its theatrical run in the box-office with $760.507 Million. Star Wars: The Force Awakens was released on the same day of the year as Avatar, but where Star Wars is at $544.57 Million in just 10 days, it took Avatar 38 days (January 24) to get that far.

Will Star Wars: The Force Awakens make $1 Billion domestically? The chances are pretty good, its worldwide total seems to be at 1.799 Billion right now. Conservative estimates have the film crashing through the $900 Million mark just as the film is released in China on January 9, 2016. China is the second biggest film market worldwide and will greatly pump the international box office numbers, even beyond the 2.023 Billion of Avatar.