Barring any disasters or shockingly bad reviews, we all knew Star Wars: The Force Awakens was destined to become the highest-grossing Star Wars flick ever, but I’m not sure anybody thought it would happen quite so quickly. After a mere two weekends on the market, The Force Awakens has brought in more than a billion dollars worldwide ($1.16 billion, to be exact) and surpassed previous record-holder Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, which made $1.03 billion over its entire run. Take that, Jar Jar.
The Force Awakens is also close to becoming the all-time domestic box-office champion. After only 10 days in theaters, The Force Awakens has made $571 million at the American box office, which puts it in easy striking distance of Titanic ($658 million) and Avatar ($760 million). The Force Awakens is the fastest film ever to reach more than $500 million at the American box office.
Of course, taking inflation into account, The Force Awakens isn’t the top Star Wars movie yet, and may never be. The Force Awakens will definitely surpass The Phantom Menace‘s inflation-adjusted $1.46 billion gross, but it’s going to struggle to surpass the original Star Wars, which brought in $621 million in 1977. That translates to a whopping $2.43 billion in 2015 dollars.
But who knows, even Star Wars‘ inflation-adjusted number could be in striking distance. Looking at the history, Star Wars movies always end up at least doubling what they make in their first 10 days. Sometimes they come close to tripling what they make in those first two weekends. $2.5 billion isn’t out of the question.
So yeah, look for Disney to announce the construction of its own Death Star to hold all their money soon.
(Via Forbes, The Hollywood Reporter and The Numbers)
