The Force Awakens Doubles Previous Christmas Record with $49.34 Million
December 26, 2015
Star Wars: The Force Awakens set another record by earning $49.34 million on Christmas Day. This more than doubles the previous record of $24.61 million held by Sherlock Holmes. However, this was only 79% more than it made on Christmas Eve, whereas Avatar rose 107% on the same day in its run. You can't even say Avatar had it easy due to weaker competition, so perhaps the explanation lies elsewhere. Perhaps a lot of people who were scared off by the crowds thus far decided to see the movie on Christmas Eve, because it is historically a slow day a the box office. That’s certainly what I was thinking. Because of this, I'm lowing my expectations for the weekend from $170 million to $160 million. This would have been a good opening weekend result for the film. It will be well above the current Record Second Weekend of $106.59 million by Jurassic World.
There were a number of other new releases this week, including Daddy’s Home, which earned second place with $15.7 million. This is almost as much as analysts had it earning over the entire weekend. I guess its terrible reviews didn’t scare off many moviegoers, at least not opening day. It should finish the weekend with $45 million, more or less, while it might challenge Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation as Paramount’s biggest hit of the year.
Joy also had reason to feel happy as it earned second place with $6.85 million. This also beats expectations and should lead to an opening weekend of just over $20 million. I don’t think it will have as strong legs as the previous David O'Russell / Jennifer Lawrence collaborations, as the reviews are on the weak side. However, the film cost $60 million to make and it should easily earn more than that domestically.
The rest of the three new releases were in a tight race for fifth place on Friday. Concussion led this group with $4.3 million, putting it just ahead of Point Break at $4.13 million and The Big Short at $3.78 million. The Big Short should rise the most on Saturday, because it expanded semi-wide on Wednesday, while Point Break will be the weakest, because of its reviews.
Both The Hateful Eight and The Revenant had amazing debuts in limited release. In fact, The Hateful Eight earned a place in the top ten with $1.905 million in 100 theaters for the day. This bodes very well for its wide expansion next weekend. Meanwhile, The Revenant earned $172,000 in just four theaters for an average of $42,940. That would be a great theater average for the full weekend and it earned that much during its opening day. It too should thrive when it expands wide on January 8th.
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Filed under: Star Wars Ep. VII: The Force Awakens, Point Break, Joy, The Revenant, The Hateful Eight, The Big Short, Concussion, Daddy’s Home, Star Wars, Jennifer Lawrence, David O. Russell