Top 5 Breakdown
1. Star Wars: The Force Awakens – £33,903,560 -NE
(2D 55%) 2D £13,297,190 inc. previews £18,342,656
(3D 45%) 3D took £8,557,510 inc. previews £12,200,568(IMAX 9.9%) IMAX (3D £2,330,672 inc. previews £3,302,363 from 41 screens– IMAX 70mm £38,443 – inc. previews £57,974 from 1 screen.
Compares to 6.69% of SPECTRE opening from IMAX/3D and 46% Jurassic World opening from 3D
Beats previous 4-day record set in June by Jurassic World of £19,289,562 and 2011’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallow Part 2 3 day opening £23.75m.
Many have said The Force Awakens will keep its records for a long time but in May 2017 they will likely break again with the arrival of Star Wars VIII as ticket prices will surely be at least 6% more than they are today. After its opening all experts are predicting it will beat Avatar as they have done for many months the next two weeks will be key on how it holds over the lucrative two weeks of Christmas.
Digital Cinema Media said it had 2.7m admissions they make up 80% of the market total is 3.24m which would make average ticket price £10.46. I ran a Twitter poll yesterday asking ticket price people paid with 64% saying more than £11.49; I paid first time £10.49 and second time £16.49 I 3D at my local Vue.
£2.4m from midnight screenings and £9.6m from Thursday (previous high as HPDH2 £9.48m)
Friday £6.9m – Saturday £8.7m (biggest ever Saturday beating previous record high of Skyfall) Sunday £8.5m total £24.2m
Vue Westfield sold 15,000 tickets on Thursday over 78 performances.
Will soon overtake both 2002’s Attack of the Clones £37.55m and 2005’s Revenge of the Sith £39.43m but as neither were released in 3D and with prices half are now cannot be compared.
Are no UK box office figures available for Star Wars A New Hope but IMDB say it had 20.760m would be at today’s ticket prices £217m.
Since October 19th when advance bookings opened to December 16th over 1 million tickets were been pre-booked for The Force Awakens (over 700,000 at Odeon and 332,000 at Vue Cinemas). Many fans have been waiting for this day for over 32 years since Return of the Jedi opened but also 912 days since Disney announced plans to make another trilogy.
What must be noted with these record breaking figures is Odeon doubled their blockbuster tax 19th October to £2 when bookings opened as well as BFI IMAX increasing their prices from £19 – 22 up 15.7% while the Odeon Leicester Square top price is £28.
It took Spectre 11 days to cross £50m barrier The Force Awakens will likely do it in 7 days half the time Jurassic World did in June. But as in the US the audience breakdown is very male over 40s focused with many already seeing it several times over 4 days. Will it expand from its fan-base with the strong Rey female character it does play strongly to women but problem is women don’t seem to be that interested at the moment.
Disney carefully orchestrated its marketing campaign to avoid early spoilers holding back the film to the very last moment to screen to the media. Embargo was held by all apart from the expected Tweets spoilers were missing similarly when embargo ended and the first reviews were released they were all spoiler free. But immediately after first midnight screenings ended many put spoilers on social media. For fans to try to avoid seeing them rushed out to see it on opening day.
George Osborne & Ed Vaizey were surprisingly credited on film which annoyed many Star Wars fans. Disney lit up Trafalgar Square with a blue lightsaber Disney reportedly had a couple of other high profile stunts rejected one was a red and blue lightsaber on Tower Bridge the other was to station Stormtroopers outside Downing Street instead had the Chancellor telling bad Star Wars jokes.
Simon Pegg announced several months ago Daniel Craig was to cameo in the film he denied this in May but filmed his cameo whilst shooting Spectre.
Rumours of Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Cruise also having cameos as Stormtroopers in the opening scene both denied doing so when it was announced last year both were filming at Pinewood Studios around the time Star Wars was there and its rumoured Tom Cruise is the third Stormtrooper in the picture below.
Ewan McGregor and the late Alec Guinness voices also cameo in the film sadly no Jar Jar Binks or Ewoks cameo.
8.7 billion Twitter impressions for #StarWars #TheForceAwakens hashtags in the 7 days ahead of its release. But immediately after web traffic was down 5.5% in UK and 10.9% in France as fans tried to avoid spoilers. Was also the most talked about film on Facebook in 2015 in December alone 53 million people talked about it,
Mark Zuckerberg shared picture of his daughter Max with the tagline “The Force is strong with this one”.
The picture has received over a million likes on Facebook and shared by over 36,000.
Barack Obama signed off his year-end press conference saying “I Gotta get to Star Wars”; The White House was holding a screening for children of Gold Star families with Stormtroopers guarding side entrance to the White House.
Global it overtook Jurassic World to have biggest opening ever early estimates had it taking $517m but that rose to $528m. Jurassic World producer Frank Marshall tweeted the image above of a Tyrannosaurus rex bestowing a medal on BB-8, along with the message “Universal Pictures, Steven, Frank and Colin congratulate Star Wars: The Force Awakens on the biggest opening weekend in galactic history.”
Jurassic World’s opening was boosting by $99.1m from China but The Force Awakens doesn’t open in China until January 9th; Disney are pushing the film heavily in China as they only got to see the origin films in June as they were banned for many years.
In Hollywood’s ArcLight theaters its first midnight show was ruined as the projector stopped and then started up again towards the end of the film spoiling the film for everyone and everyone went crazy. In the Vue cinema I saw it the house lights came on at the start of the final scene.
Watching again in 3D being retro-fitted there are some moments that look good in 3D but like many films isn’t worth the extra cost exhibitor add. But trailers for Independence Day Resurgence and X-Men: Apocalypse both looked great in 3D.
In Egypt cancelled Wednesdays screenings in their IMAX cinema due to a corrupted copy which lead someone to write an expletive-laden post on the cinemas Facebook page.
You can already pre-order the film on Google Play and via Sky Store for £13.99 as Spectre was 2 weeks after release its expected to be released on DVD for Easter with a possible exclusive window on their exclusive streaming service Disneylife.
The release of the film has also led to a 500% increase in DVD sales of porn parody Star WarsXXX; it is thought to have one of the highest budgets ever for a porn film as the film refers itself as a parody Lucasfilm wasn’t able to ban it.
Parishioners at Berlin’s Zion Church were welcomed by Star Wars theme yesterday with a sermon about the “juxtaposition of good and bad, light and dark” as exemplified by the blockbuster franchise.
Even though film had an unprecedented level of secrecy surrounding production Carrie Fisher told Graham Norton the plot of the film over a year ago. It’s not a surprise as Carrie Fisher is known as loose cannon with her antics promoting the film.
The Force Awakens is set to generate $5 billion in merchandise in the first year; the franchise has already generated $28 billion in sales to date. With the new films as software to promote and sell merchandise and theme park rides.
The big question is how it will perform over the coming weeks with school holidays and no real competition in the UK (as The Hateful Eight, The Revenant and Creed aren’t likely to get close) until Dad’s Army February 5th but doubtful it will stay top for that long.
2. Sisters – £1,214,635 – NE
Had it been a 3-day opening would be a respectable start for the film opening against The Force Awakens but as it was for the 9 day opening it’s a disappointing start after taking £734,401 from 6 days of previews including £321,481 from last weekend.
After positive reviews and word of mouth could perform better over the next two weeks as people seek out other films to see but will face competition with the rival comedy Daddy’s Home.
In June Spy took £1.54m in its second weekend against opening weekend of Jurassic World was never likely to match Bad Neighbours £8.42m 9-day opening.
Amy Poehler and Tina Fey aren’t as well known in the UK as their comedies 30 Rock and Parks and Recreation were never broadcast on the main terrestrial channels. Amy Poehler voiced character Joy in Inside Out in the summer while Tina Fey’s biggest opening was Date Night starring alongside Steve Carell opened £1.27m in April 2010.
3. The Good Dinosaur – £888,495 – total £8,083,129
2D took £871,597 – total £8,083,129 – 3D took £16,898 – total £893,736
Holding well in its fourth weekend down 30.1% performing far better than Snoopy and Charlie Brown: A Peanuts Movie which was on its third weekend of previews before opening today.
With schools now out The Good Dinosaur will likely perform strongly over the coming two weeks.
4. Dilwale – £724,359– NE
With studios running scared from The Force Awakens allowed two Indian films to feature in the top 10. Dilwale a romantic musical action comedy. IG Interactive Entertainment chose to remove 13 seconds to enable it to receive a 12A certificate.
Opening in sixth place was epic historical drama Bajirao Mastani
5. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 – £525,225 – total £26,6721,018
2D took £518,539 total £22,779,308 – 3D £6,686 – total £7,891,710
Dropping an unexpected 59.1% in its fifth weekend after losing many screens to The Force Awakens was still selling out smaller screens in the cinemas I went to over the weekend.
Although many fans enjoyed the film as much as the first part hasn’t attracted the same box office as Mockingjay Part 1 and Catching Fire and without 3D and Odeon’s blockbuster charge it would of likely not beaten first film released in 2012.
Have been rumours Lionsgate want to do prequels but Jennifer Lawrence has said she doesn’t want to be involved with them at this moment and its unlikely Lionsgate could make a film without her.
Complete UK Box office top 10 – December 18th-20th 2015
| Film | Studio | Release date | Weeks | w/e box office | Change +/- | Total |
| SW: The Force Awakens | Disney | 17/11/2015 | 1 | 33,903,560 | NE | 33,903,560 |
| Sisters | Universal | 12/12/2015 | 1 | 1,214,635 | NE | 1,214,635 |
| The Good Dinosaur | Disney | 27/11/2015 | 4 | 888,495 | -30.1% | 8,083,129 |
| Dilwale | UTV | 18/12/2015 | 1 | 724,359 | NE | 724,359 |
| THG: Mockingjay Part 2 | Lionsgate | 20/11/2015 | 5 | 525,225 | -59.1% | 26,671,018 |
| Bajrao Mastani | Eros | 18/12/2015 | 1 | 297,575 | NE | 297,575 |
| Spectre | Sony | 26/10/2015 | 8 | 295,345 | -63.3% | 92,613,063 |
| Christmas with …Coopers | eOne | 03/12/2015 | 3 | 257,395 | -43.7% | 1,952,413 |
| Bridge of Spies | 20th Century Fox | 26/11/2015 | 4 | 211,841 | -72.9% | 6,144,135 |
| Carol | Studiocanal | 27/11/2015 | 4 | 76,598 | -77.7% | 2,030,000 |
Other box office news:
This weekend’s top 10 box office took £38,395,028 up 522.2% from last weekend £6,170,398; was up 163.9% from same weekend last year (£14,548,822);
Star Wars The Force Awakens took 88.3% of top 10 box office compared to Spectre 85.6%, Avengers: Age of Ultron’s 82.2% Jurassic World 81.1%, Fast and Furious 7 72.2% and 50 Shades of Grey 60%
Last year Night at the Museum 3 opened with £1,900,000, Dumb and Dumber To £1,800,000
This weekend last year Exodus: Gods and Kings – £2,604,812, Annie – £2,307,751, Unbroken £655,009.
US Box Office
1. Disney’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens broke previous record Jurassic World $208.8m taking $238m 47% came from 3D, 12% from IMAX and 7% from large formats. Opening more than double previous December record The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’s debut of $84.6m.
Audience breakdown: 26-34 (26%), 35-49 (24%), 17-25 (20%) 50 + (13%), 13-16 (9%) < 12 (8%); with men 58% share. Received A Cinemascore from men but 18-25 women gave it A+ as did under 18s.
The big question will be how it performs over the next two weekends as they are the most lucrative of the year previous films opening same date as The Force Awakens like Avatar and Titanic held very strongly the following weekends last years The Hobbit The Battle of the Five Armies dropped only 25% but then others like Tron Legacy dropped 56% second weekend likely $140-180m.
2. 20th Century Fox’s Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip opened with $14.4m; received A- CinemaScore likely to perform strongly over lucrative 2 weeks of Christmas.
3. Universal’s Sisters opened with $13.4m; received B CinemaScore will face competing this week from Daddy’s Home.
4. Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games Mockingjay Part 2 took $5.6m down 50.5% with total $254.4m $254.4m.
5. Warner Bros Creed took $5.1m down 49.8% with total $87.9m
Opening on limited released
Sony Pictures Classic’s Son of Saul opened $38,891 from 3 screens
On limited released
Paramount’s The Big Short took $350,000 from 8 screens with total $1.3m expanding nationwide on Tuesday.
The Danish Girl –Focus – added 57 screens increased 104% taking $538,000 from 781 screens total
$1,325,633.
Carol – Weinstein Co – held on 12 screens dropping 31.9% taking $229,893 from 16 screens total $ 1,626,721.
Legend –Universal – dropped 22 screens down 60.5% taking $128,775 from 85 screens total $ 1,714,304.
Youth – Searchlight – dropped 11 screens down 47% $136,300 from 61 screens and $ 516,322 total.
