BY SCOTT GWIN for CinemaBlend
Beginning its third week in release Star Wars: The Force Awakens continues to dominate the box office. Most movies with massive openings tend to drop off more quickly than others, but the seventh Star Wars film continues to buck that trend, slipping just 40% each weekend, retaining a death grip on the number one spot and securing a truly significant place in box office history: biggest domestic total of all time.
Adding $88 million this weekend, The Force Awakens shredded its way into $700 million territory to the tune of $740 million in domestic sales. That’s just $20 million away from topping Avatar‘s record holding $760 million domestic total, a goal it will probably hit before next weekend rolls around. The question now is whether or not the movie will become the first ever to break $1 billion. While the movie is still going strong, that mark is still over $250 million away and hardly a sure thing.
While the movie is busting its way along in North America, the movie isn’t doing as well internationally as other recent massive blockbusters. Looking at the top ten world-wide grossing movies, they tend to have a 2 to 1 ratio of sales between international and domestic. For example, Avatar, the current world-wide grossing champion, had over $2 billion in international sales compared with its $760 million domestic. Titanic grossed $1.5 billion internationally to its $658 million domestic. So far Star Wars: The Force Awakens is almost 1 to 1, having just $770 million in international sales compared to $740 million domestic. Why?
World-Wide Business Centres
575 Madison Avenue – 10th floor
New York, NY 10022
(212) 605-0200
