So while many fans are slowly blinding themselves with constant reruns of the now-released Blu-Ray edition, Disney is counting its massive haul. The Force Awakens is now the third-highest-grossing movie of all time (and third ever to reach the $2 billion milestone), behind James Cameron’s blockbusting Titanic and Avatar films. But with almost a billion of that cash earned domestically, J.J. Abrams’ sequel is firmly the highest-grossing film ever in the United States.
The $2 billion club is extremely elusive for even the biggest hit films. Case in point: The next-closest worldwide grosser of all time to The Force Awakens is Jurassic World, which earned almost a quarter less ($1.6 billion) at the box office overall.
Abrams’ Star Wars broke numerous box office records — and crashed many ticketing websites — when it first hit theaters in December, and that fervor continued for months after its release, It continued to sell more than $1 million in tickets per day until March.
On the foreign front, the U.K. was the largest box-office supporter of the film, with $180 million in sales, followed by the burgeoning market in China, which spent $125 million.
Disney may be upset that it didn’t upend Cameron’s two massive hits at the box office, but it will likely hugely outperform both films in merchandise and licensing: One doesn’t see many teenage girls with Titanic posters on their wall in 2016, but there sure are a lot of little tykes with Kylo Ren’s saber.
Plus, with numerous spinoffs and sequels planned in the coming years, that $4 billion sticker price will continue to melt away. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story hits theaters this year, followed by the Rian Johnson-directed sequel to The Force Awakens and a film about the young Han Solo, set to hit screens in 2018. All of these should make sizable dents in Disney’s upfront investment, if not firmly erase it forever.
Editors' Recommendations
- 10 biggest sci-fi hits of all time, ranked by adjusted box-office gross
- All the canceled Star Wars movies
- Why Star Wars Jedi: Survivor’s Cal Kestis needs his own Disney+ show
- James Mangold’s Dawn of the Jedi movie can save Star Wars
- A new Star Wars quest begins in the first trailer for Ahsoka
