‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ surpasses ‘Avatar’ to become top-grossing film ever in North America

in Movies, Star Wars

After just 20 days in movie theaters and more than $760 million in box office sales, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” has already overtaken “Avatar” to become the highest grossing film ever in North America.

James Cameron’s “Avatar” reached $750 million after seven months in theaters but also totaled $2.78 billion overall in both domestic and foreign markets. “The Force Awakens” still has a long way to go to surpass that with $1.56 billion total as of Tuesday, but will count on a huge boost from China when it opens there this weekend. Both are the only films to have ever reached $700 million in North America (without adjusting for inflation).

Cameron’s prior box office king “Titanic” took in $2.19 billion overall when it was released back in 1997 and while “The Force Awakens” (which now has more than $800 million in foreign box office sales) is expected to pass that soon enough, box office analysts are not quite ready to predict that it can topple “Avatar” in global ticket sales.

Both “Avatar” and “Titanic” benefitted from several re-releases in theaters, and the question now becomes whether or not Disney will do the same for “The Force Awakens” deep into 2016 to boost its numbers. Perhaps we’ll see “Special Editions” of this new trilogy after all?

 

in Movies, Star Wars

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