‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ To Produce Record Numbers, But Won’t Top Box Office

There’s no doubt that Star Wars: The Force Awakens will smash records at movie theaters in the U.S.; however, it won’t exactly top the box office this weekend.

Disney announced that the J.J. Abrams film has already raked in $57 million last night in both the U.S. and Canada. Other early estimates hinted that it has already raked in $130 million globally since the film already hit theaters as early as Wednesday in some countries. In addition, The Force Awakens has already broken ticket pre-sale records. The Hollywood Reporter revealed that over $100 million worth of tickets were sold ahead of its release. Dave Hollis, executive vice president of distributor at Disney, released a statement about the film breaking records well ahead of its release.

“We are obviously very encouraged by the record-breaking pre-sales for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”

Online movie ticket service Fandango also announced that it sold more tickets for The Force Awakens than any other film ever.

Disney announced that there are plenty of tickets for Star Wars fans who want to see the movie this weekend.

“There are literally millions of tickets available for this weekend, and exhibitors have a lot of flexibility in terms of capacity and increasing the number of shows based on demand.”

But not everyone was impressed with the movie on opening night. Michael Danke of Los Angeles told CNBC News that he waited in line for over 48 hours for tickets, which he scored, but he didn’t like the way the film was portrayed.

“I was kind of looking forward to a futuristic, b****in’ movie, but it was an old Star Wars movie. They did it old style.”

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is the one of the most popular and highly-anticipated films of 2015, and likely the holiday season, but it won’t be as big in terms of box office numbers, according to Goldman Sachs. The latest Star Wars movie is the first under the ownership of Walt Disney. Goldman predicts that that the film will rake in $1.95 billion globally, including $750 million from the U.S. and $1.2 billion from international box offices.

As big as that number looks, it will still put Star Wars: The Force Awakens at No. 3 behind Titanic’s $3.6 billion and Avatar’s $2.9 billion global box office numbers, according to Goldman Sachs data from Box Office Mojo. But with a massive global box office total of $1.95 billion, Star Wars will top other big films such as Marvel’s The Avengers at $1.7 billion, Fast & Furious 7 at $1.6 billion, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 at $1.4 billion.

The last time a film made an all-time weekend record was Jurassic World back in June, when it raked in $208.8 million.

Disney will also make some serious money off the Star Wars brand. Merchandise is expected to rake in as much as $3 billion globally, which means $300 million in licensing revenue for Disney, according to USA Today. Disney gets to keep 80 cents of every dollar in revenue, right down to $240 million in profit for Disney’s bottom line, according to Goldman.

Some of those fans already wore their Star Wars merchandise and costumes to the opening night of The Force Awakens on Thursday night. According to CNBC News report, Kelly Andrews wore her love for the franchise in the form of Yoda and R2-D2 tattoos. She purchased tickets for The Force Awakens back in October at the Hollywood’s iconic TCL Chinese Theatre, where the original Star Wars premiered back in 1977. Andrews was very pleased with the latest Star Wars installment.

“It was outstanding. I cried happy tears. I cried sad tears. It was beautiful.”

In case you’re on the hunt for reviews on The Force Awakens, the film has received rave reviews from both movie critics and fans around the world.

While Star Wars fans will continue to debate on which movie is the better one – The Force Awakens will still shatter box office records. Goldman Sachs also predicts that the domestic box office of $750 million will easily top the fan favorite The Empire Strikes Back at $658 million.

Have you already seen The Force Awakens? If so, what are your thoughts on the movie? Sound off below in the comments section.

[Photo by David McNew/Getty Images]