Weekend Estimates: Force aweakens with $88.3 million weekend

January 3, 2016

Star Wars: The Force Awakens This weekend sees the first signs of a slow-down at the box office for The Force Awakens, which will be down 41% from last weekend, according to Disney’s Sunday morning estimate. That’s the worst comparative performance in the top ten, and much weaker than Avatar’s 9% decline the same weekend in 2010. Such statistics are fairly academic when you already have $700 million in the bank domestically, though, and Star Wars’ momentum coming out of the holidays is such that it will register the biggest ever New Year’s weekend, and the biggest-ever 3rd weekend, overtaking Avatar’s $68.5 million. With $770.5 million overseas so far, its global total is now over $1.5 billion, putting it in the top six all time, and guaranteeing it will end in the top three, with only Titanic and Avatar left to shoot for.

The rest of the chart looks comparatively strong this weekend, and overall we’ll have the biggest New Year’s weekend of all time. Daddy’s Home will be second with $29 million for a very impressive $93.7 million after two weekends. The Hateful Eight will clock in with $16.24 million or so for third place, which is a little disappointing, actually. Tarantino generally delivers between $20 million and $30 million opening weekend, and the headline figure this time has been deflated a bit by the film expanding wide on Wednesday. If it struggles from here on, it will be a major disappointment for Weinstein.

Two films really stand out in limited release. The Revenant will post $450,000 from four theaters, for an average over $100,000 for the second weekend running. Essentially every show is sold out, and it will be down just 5% from opening weekend. Anomalisa will debut with $140,000 from four theaters for an average of $35,000. There was a time when that would be close to record territory, and even though it seems pedestrian compared to some recent limited debuts, it’s a very promising start.

Also cracking $10,000 averages, and getting honorable mentions, are two foreign films: Chimes at Midnight is set to earn about $20,000 from a single location, and Only Yesterday will score a little over $13,000, also from one theaters.

- Weekend Estimates

Related articles:
- Friday estimates: Star Wars is top of the class of 2015 with $686.43 million
- Weekend Predictions: Will Hateful Experience any Love? Will Star Wars hit the Century Mark?
- The Force Awakens Destroys Fastest to $600 million Record
- International Box Office: The Force Awakens Becomes Fastest to $1 Billion
- Weekend Wrap-Up: The Force Awakens Earns $149.20 million and Daddy Hits Home Run
- Weekend Estimates: Star Wars $153 million Christmas demolishes another set of records
- The Force Awakens Doubles Previous Christmas Record with $49.34 Million
- The Force Awaken Feels Merry with Record Breaking Christmas Eve Haul of $27.59 Million
- Star Wars Daily Record Streak Ends with $38.1 million Wednesday
- Weekend Predictions: Will The New Releases Experience Any Joy?
- International Box Office: The Force Awakens Sets Global Opening Record with $529 million
- Tuesday Record Falls to The Force Awakens with $37.3 million
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens Loves Mondays to the tune of $40.1 million
- Theater Averages: Star Wars Set Another Record with $59,982
- Weekend Wrap Up Box Office Breaks $300 million Mark
- Weekend Final Numbers: Star Wars Wreaks Havoc on Record Book
- Weekend Estimates: Force Awakens with Projected All Time Best 238 Million
- International Box Office: Star Wars Adds Germany to its Record Collection
- Analysis: Preview and Friday Numbers Point to $225 Million Weekend
- Star Wars is an Unstoppable Force
- Thursday Night Previews: Star Wars is Deadly to the Competition
- Star Wars Forces Its Way to the Top in United Kingdom
- Star Wars Starts Busting Records Around the World
- Weekend Predictions: How Big of a Force Will Star Wars be at the Box Office?
- Critics go Mad for The Force Awakens
- Star Wars’ Path to Avatar’s Three Titanic Records
- Eight Records Star Wars Needs to Break
- Six Records Star Wars is Certain to Break

Related pages:
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens
- Star Wars franchise history
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens Recent Comparisons
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens All-Time Comparisons
- Theatrical Records

Bruce Nash,

Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Star Wars Ep. VII: The Force Awakens, The Revenant, The Hateful Eight, Anomalisa, Daddy’s Home, Omohide poro poro (おもひでぽろぽろ), Campanadas a medianoche, Star Wars, Quentin Tarantino