With no new competition in an otherwise sleepy new year weekend at the American box office, the not-so-little film that could, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, continued to dominate the charts, snatching records faster and faster as its pace intensifies. The film’s US total now stands at $740.2 million, according to studio estimates.
Earning $88.3 million just this weekend (a drop of only 40%), J.J. Abrams’ franchise entry has been overtaking other big releases on various rankings, besting both Titanic and Jurassic World on the all-time US domestic chart and setting its targeting computer to take aim at top dog Avatar, which earned $760.5 million. The way The Force Awakens is going, it’ll probably have overtaken James Cameron’s sci-fi champ by the time you finish reading this article. And it’s much the same on the global front, with the movie currently sitting sixth, but likely to move up to fourth soon, leapfrogging Fast & Furious 7 and Avengers Assemble for the slot. It should see a further boost from China, where it opens on January 9.
Elsewhere, a few films managed to make some money in the shadow of the behemoth. Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell’s new comedy Daddy’s Home earned $29 million to stay in second place, driving its domestic total to $93.6 million, while Quentin Tarantino’s Western The Hateful Eight took advantage of opening a week earlier than planned, and expanded to many more cinemas following its initial roadshow release. Though it hasn’t exactly proved to be QT’s biggest launch, it earned $16.2 million this weekend for a $29.7 million total to date.
Sisters, which marks the latest comedy team-up between Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, remained in fourth place with $12.5 million (and more than $61.7 million in total), while the new Alvin And The Chipmunks outing, The Road Chip, stayed in fifth for a second weekend, taking home $11.8 million.
David O. Russell’s Joy fell from third to sixth place, soaking up $10.4 million, while Adam McKay’s blend of comedy, drama and true stories of financial dodgy dealing The Big Short slipped one place to seventh for $9 million. Another based-on-truth tale, NFL injury drama Concussion, dipped to eighth with $8 million, and the new version of Point Break, which suffered from truly rotten reviews, fell one position to ninth and $6.8 million. For a film about extreme sports enthusiasts who pull off heists, $22.4 million isn’t exactly a huge haul, especially given the movie’s reported $105 million budget before advertising and print costs are counted. Finally, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 held on in the charts, falling to 10th with $4.6 million and $274.2 million to date. In terms of earnings, that puts it fourth on the list of Hunger Games movies.