BOX OFFICE: Just How Close Will STAR WARS: TFA Come To Beating AVATAR's Record?
Despite early predictions that Star Wars: The Force Awakens would easily top Avatar's worldwide haul of $2.7 billion, it now looks like the movie will fall slightly short of that target. However, how close will it come and why isn't it performing as strongly as some expected?
There's no two ways about it; Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a massive critical and commercial hit. Sure, it's probably not going to become the highest grossing release of all-time, but it's honestly unlikely that anything will ever top Avatar, so just the fact that it's going to come close is amazing. With over $1.75 billion at the worldwide box office, The Hollywood Reporter believes that it's still on track to top Titantic's $2.19 billion haul in the coming weeks. Why then won't it reach Avatar? Well, the Force apparently isn't as strong in Asia and Latin America, while the fact that it will likely be out of cinemas long before Avatar was also poses a problem for the J.J. Abrams helmed release.
Analysts predict as much as $900 million in North America and between $1.2 billion to $1.4 billion overseas to give Star Wars: The Force Awakens a worldwide haul of $2.1 billion to $2.3 billion (some believe it could go as high as $2.4 billion). "No matter what, the film is an absolute, all-out blockbuster without peer in terms of the sheer speed at which it has crossed all of these major box-office milestones," says says Rentrak's Paul Dergarabedian. "With very few box-office frontiers to conquer, including the $1 billion mark in North America, and a penciled-in reservation in the exclusive $2 billion club, if Force Awakens winds up sandwiched between the two biggest movies of all-time, Avatar and Titanic, no one associated with the film will be singing the Jedi blues. They'll be celebrating this dream scenario result." Wall Street experts have also stated that Disney $4 billion investment will pay off for them in a massive way, so the future is looking very bright for the Star Wars Universe. How much do you think the movie will end up making?
About The Author:
A lifelong comic book fan who grew up on Spider-Man: The Animated Series in the '90s, Josh Wilding has been contributing to ComicBookMovie.com since 2009.
While he's also written for websites like Batman-News, HeyUGuys, and WhatCulture, Josh is CBM's Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic and the site's #1 contributor with nearly two decades of experience covering film and TV news (including interviews with Tom Holland, Chris Pratt, Gary Oldman, Halle Berry, Jon Bernthal, Tom Welling, and hundreds more).
Based in the UK with his wife, Josh is also an avid WWE and Formula 1 fan and writes about those passions on CBM's sister sites, TheRingReport.com and FullThrottleHQ.com. Favourite superhero? Spider-Man. Favourite pro wrestler? CM Punk. Favourite F1 driver? Max Verstappen.