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Star Wars: The Force Awakens beat every box office record

Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Lucasfilm
Alex Abad-Santos
Alex Abad-Santos is a senior correspondent who explains what society obsesses over, from Marvel and movies to fitness and skin care. He came to Vox in 2014. Prior to that, he worked at The Atlantic.

In the end, even the dinosaurs were no match for a universe far, far away.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is officially a record-breaking hit, raking in at least $247 million in its opening weekend. To put that in perspective, The Force Awakens crushed Jurassic World’s record-breaking $208.8 million opening weekend from this summer, and set a December opening record by tripling The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’s December 2012 opening of $84.6 million, according to Variety.

For a while, it looked like the only record The Force Awakens wouldn’t break was the one for global box office earnings. According to Variety, it “only” made $517 million worldwide, $8 million less than Jurassic World’s current record of $525 million.

But according to The Hollywood Reporter’s new estimates, a strong Sunday showing pushed its global opening to $528 million. The Force Awakens has yet to open in China (it will debut there in January) — and if it had opened there this weekend, it would’ve pushed that global opening record even higher.

New movies coming out later this week include the Jennifer Lawrence–led and David O. Russell–directed Joy; The Revenant, starring Leonardo DiCaprio; Concussion, starring Will Smith as Bennet Omalu the forensic pathologist who pioneered research about football and brain injuries; and the Point Break remake. But it’s hard to see any of them knocking the Force Awakens from its top spot.

Update: New estimates for Star Wars: The Force Awakens’s opening weekend were calculated after this story was published. The headline and box office information were updated to reflect the new numbers.


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