Star Wars Pulls In $1 Billion At Record Speed (reuters.com)

New submitter henrydan798 writes to note that Star Wars: The Force Awakens has set a new record for ticket sales, becoming the fastest movie ever to earn a billion dollars at the till. As the L.A. Times reports, The latest installment in the "Star Wars" franchise grossed an estimated $153.5 million in the U.S. and Canada in its second weekend, beating the lower end of analyst expectations of $140 million. This drives the J.J. Abrams-directed picture to a to-date domestic gross of $544.5 million. "The Force Awakens," which cost an estimated $200 million to produce, debuted last weekend to record domestic ticket sales of $248 million. It also grossed $281 million overseas for a global total of $529 million, topping the previous worldwide debut benchmark set in June by "Jurassic World" ($525 million). This week, with an international estimated gross of $546 million to date, the film became the fastest to surpass $1 billion globally. Were any of those dollars yours? If so, do you think they were well spent?

Comments

Not my money, yet

[ffkom]

Congratulations on the successful marketing! And still, I'm in no rush to see this movie. I'll wait until I can rent a BluRay in my local video store, to watch it at home, where already for significant time the image and audio quality is more pleasant than in most public theaters, not to mention the comfort of having control over volume, play/pause etc., and the absent mob of other people.

Re:Not my money, yet

[Maxo-Texas]

The best way I can find to explain how I felt after thinking about the film was that it has been "autotuned".

It feels right and great (at least the first half) while you are in the theatre.

But it doesn't feel right later when you start thinking about it.

Some people will be satisfied with the feeling of the first half and not too bothered by the retread of a retread of a retread of a second half but unless the next film is better this is not going to be very rewatchable.

You don't want to see it as I saw it- through less than new 3-d glasses which had a kind of haze around the edge near the frame that couldn't be cleaned with waiters walking back and forth in front of you-- stopping twice to tell us the bar was closing soon.

I started to feel like "Get the "F" off of me and out of my view-line!"

Bottom line is- I feel this movie is a designed corporate film where young people who lack experience and training beat people with years of experience and training ( Sounds like Star Trek already right?) and it tosses out 30 years of canon and 50% reboots the series.

only for the nostalgia

[Anonymous Coward]

The new film was (a) far better than the train wreck of the prior three, (b) essentially identical to the first (1977) Star Wars plot, (c) decently acted, and (d) a mediocre movie, but one that felt better than it really was in comparison to the horrors of the prequels. It worked on a nostalgic level: it felt like the Star Wars universe again, and it didn't totally fuck it up. It didn't so well work on the level of being original or even fully making sense within its own universe.

Mixed bag. Not as horrible as the naysayers claim, but not as awesomely great as the fanboys claim.

Not shocking but mildly disappointing

[quantaman]

Mild spoiler warning.

Of course it made a billion dollars, it's a decent Star Wars movie. They could have made a great Star Wars movie if they didn't just remake A New Hope. Of course that would also risk a bomb that would kill ticket sales for the further installments.

Better to shoot for mediocrity and guarantee billions than to shoot for greatness and risk the cash cow. Hopefully the next non-Abrams director will be willing to make a new movie.

Not a movie

[vikingpower]

Star Wars is not a movie anymore. It is a heavily marketed brand. It can't even qualify for the label "science fiction", compared to the truly good SF movies around. Heck, Interstellar is a lot better than that, even with the hole(s) in the plot and the "Amurrica yeah!" spirit. I mean - I'm an adult. You'd literally have to drag me to a Star Wars movie, kicking and screaming.