Weekend Estimates: Star Wars tops $800 million, Revenant impressive on debut

January 10, 2016

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

The Force Awakens will become the first movie to hit $800 million at the domestic box office today, according to Disney’s estimates released on Sunday. With a $41.6 million weekend, the film moves to $812 million in total domestically, becoming the second-highest-grossing Star Wars movie adjusted for inflation, ahead of The Empire Strikes Back’s inflation-adjusted $808 million. It should pass Avatar’s inflation-adjusted $826 million this week. Perhaps the biggest news of the weekend, however, comes from overseas.

Star Wars has earned $53 million in two days in China, a record for the territory, and moved to $918 million internationally. It’s now 3rd all-time worldwide with $1.73 billion, just ahead of Jurassic World’s $1.67 billion. Titanic’s $2.21 billion global figure looks to be under threat, but Avatar will most likely remain the all-time record holder. Star Wars would need to find another $1 billion to catch it and has no major openings left.

In second place this weekend, The Revenant will clock in with $38 million, an impressive number for an R-rated film, and Leonardo DiCaprio’s best weekend since The Great Gatsby. The film is already getting some awards attention, and it’s a good bet for a Best Picture Oscar nomination, so it should have a good run ahead of it, particular with no strong competition coming up in the next few weeks.

Supernatural thriller The Forest will be in fourth place this weekend with a $13 million opening. That’s a very respectable number for a film costing $10 million. With a marketing budget most likely well under $20 million, the film should be nicely profitable.

In limited release, Anomalisa continues to do well with $221,000 projected from 17 locations this weekend, for an average of $19,000. Paramount will continues to expand it, but it already looks like it will be tough sell in more than a few hundred theaters. Also doing well this weekend is Janus Films’s release of Chimes at Midnight, which will pull in $19,000 or so from a single venue.

- Weekend estimates
- The Revenant comparisons
- The Forest comparisons
- The Force Awakens comparisons

Bruce Nash,

Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Star Wars Ep. VII: The Force Awakens, The Forest, The Revenant, Anomalisa, Campanadas a medianoche, Leonardo DiCaprio