Just How Well Will Star Wars Do?

[Dave]

2015 has been a very good year for film, if you ask me. What's more, cinema has really come into it's own this year after a pretty baron year in 2014. This year, we have had 4 films breach the $1 Billion mark in Jurassic World, Furious 7, Minions and Avengers: Age of Ultron. On the back of that, those 4 films now settle into the top 10 selling movies of all time, in relation to worldwide gross.

For me though, Jurassic World and Furious 7 outdid themselves and I would even go so far as to say that they were sleeper hits. I, for one, never expected Jurassic World to be the 3rd most successful movie of all time. The same goes for Furious 7. They were good movies but you can't help but feel that Furious 7 was "helped" by the death of Paul Walker and, perhaps, would not have did so well had be been alive to see the premiere.

But there can be no doubt that Star Wars is the most hyped movie of this year. The hype surrounding it has been "out of this world"... And as we get closer to the release date now, the social media campaign and advertising machine is kicking into high gear. Look left and look right and you will undoubtedly find something to do with Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The budget for the movie was around $200 Million but you would be a fool o say that it wont be way above and beyond that mark.

So, my question to you is just how well will Star Wars do? If you adjust for inflation, Star Wars: A New Hope was the most successful movie ever. It is my opinion that this movie will head straight to the top of the 2015 grossing list. But how well will it do on the all time list is anyone's guess.

 

[Mitch Henessey]

The Force Awakens needs to surpass the $200,000,000 mark to beat Jurassic World’s opening weekend total ($208.8 million). According to a number of predictions I’ve read from box office analysts, it’ll be a tough hill to climb, and it won’t be a “cake walk,” with some predictions giving The Force Awakens a possible total of $208.9 million for the slight edge to surpass Jurassic World.

Jurassic World had an excellent marketing campaign and the trailers were great, but I have to believe The Force Awakens will break JW’s records, and it’ll only be a matter of time before Star Wars knocks JW out of the #1 spot on this year’s top worldwide grosses list. I see a good number of sold out showtimes at a few local theaters for Thursday, and there’s a strong possibility for Star Wars holding on to the #1 spot in the week to week charts for well over a month. If we’re talking about the week to week charts, there’s a chance TFA won’t see any real competition until Kung Fu Panda 3 hits theaters on January 29th.

Joy and Concussion are Oscar bait films, and Tarantino‘s The Hateful Eight has two different release dates, with a limited 70mm release on Christmas and the wide release is set for January 1st, so you have to believe two different dates will hurt THE’s box office run. Joy and Concussion should receive a fair amount of positive reviews, but they’re going up against a franchise with a storied legacy, a loyal fan base, and a film that’s riding a strong wave with three years worth of hype and anticipation. That, and after a handful of mediocre and sub-par films, there’s a slight chance for Will Smith’s aura as this invincible box office draw taking a hit.

The vast majority of early reviews for The Force Awakens are positive, and TFA currently holds a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes. To add to that, it’s the first Star Wars film in ten years, and you have the nostalgia hook with the likes of Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and others making a return to the series, and traces of the original trilogy (i.e. Vader’s melted helmet) in TFA. And there’s no reason to not have any faith in J.J. Abrams as a director. You have to factor in the critical and financial success for Star Trek and Into Darkness, and he’s as close as you’ll get to an ideal choice for a director.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

I have a feeling that Star Wars will surpass Jurassic Park, though a lot of it will depend upon some factors. One factor will obviously be the nostalgia the brand generates as there are literally people anywhere from elementary school students to senior citizens who flat out love any and all things Star Wars; there are fans from the very beginning of the franchise who're looking forward to taking their grandchildren to see The Force Awakens in theaters in hopes they'll have the same sort of great experiences they themselves had back in '77. Another factor is how interesting TFA is, how the flow of the storytelling fits in with the sheer epic scale of the Star Wars franchise, marketable characters, how action packed it is and how it all just flows together. If they can combine the nostalgia with all those other aspects strongly enough, then you'll have die hard fans lining up to watch the film over and over again; such interest among young fans and devotion from die hards could push TFA to unheard of box office returns its opening weekend. As of right now, the film has a 97% fresh rating from rottentomatoes.com with a total of 145 reviews, including Richard Roeper giving if 4 out of 4 stars. Believe it or not, a TON of movie goers do pay attention to what critics say, especially these days where going to the movies is so friggin' expensive.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

I think it's officially safe to say that Star Wars will crush Jurassic World's opening weekend record seeing as how it took in an estimated $120.5 million on Friday alone, crushing Jurassic World's opening day by almost $40 million.

 

[Shocky]

Lordy Lordy. $247 million domestic opening weekend. $528 million world wide opening weekend. New Records, all without China. The 11 year old Monday record of $24 million fell as well, as Star Wars made $41 million domestic.

As of yesterday, it is the fastest movie to $300 Million domestic, $610 million worldwide. I've read predictions for Christmas weekend. The low number seems be $165 million domestic, which is absolutely absurd, but some predictions sites are throwing out $200 million. It looks to hit $600 million domestic by the end of the weekend, putting it well over $1 Billion.

The main thing going forward after the holidays, what type of legs will this have? Honestly, nothing looks to slow it down, until Kung Fu Panda at the end of January. $2 Billion almost looks like a certainty at this point, and I'm a believer it will take the all time domestic crown from Avatar. World wide, I'm not sure it can catch Avatar, unless it goes crazy in China.

 

[SSJPhenom]

The money that this movie has made is definitely warranted. I've seen it twice and plan to go again with my little brother when I get off from work today. In my opinion it's the best Star Wars movie ever. Even better than Empire. It takes the great and wonderful story and story telling of the old trilogy and mixes it with the great and wonderful action and technology of the new trilogy (that's all the new trilogy had was better action scenes) and it turned into the best of the entire series.

Star Wars is back baby.

 

[Piss Bucket]

Star Wars is on its way back to being a "thing" IMHO, Jurassic World was crap.

Roll on Episode VIII.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Based on how it's looking right now, I'd say there's a strong possibility of The Force Awakens surpassing Titanic in terms of worldwide box office numbers. As of today, the top five grossing flicks worldwide stands like this:

1. Avatar - $2,787,965,087
2. Titanic - $2,186,772,302
3. Star Wars: The Force Awakens - $1,949,669,698
4. Jurassic World - $1,670,400,637
5. The Avengers - $1,519,557,910

Unless there's some sort of re-release for The Force Awakens a little bit later down the line, it's unlikely to catch or surpass Avatar's worldwide total. From a domestic standpoint, however, The Force Awakens is #1 by a very comfortable margin. As of right now, the top five highest grossing domestic totals stands like this:

1. Star Wars: The Force Awakens - $883,305,698
2. Avatar - $760,507,625
3. Titanic - $658,672,302
4. Jurassic World - $652,270,625
5. The Avengers - $623,357,910