As has been the case since its release Star Wars: The Force Awakens has dominated the box office in a way that has impressed even the most positive prognosticators. The term juggernaut doesn’t even do it justice. In its third weekend of release JJ Abrams’ film grossed another $88,300,000. That is a ridiculous number. It brings the total to an astounding $740,265,583 and it will pass Avatar this week to become the highest grossing film of all time domestically. One of the keys has been the repeat business. This is not a film most will see once in the theater. It’s one they’ll revisit and brings friends to. That’s not uncommon for a Star Wars film but it’s certainly uncommon in the modern age with all the different properties competing for our discretionary income.
The rest of the top five in the box office benefited from the majority of the populace having relaxed work and school schedules. The Will Ferrell/Mark Wahlberg reunion Daddy’s Home will cross $100,000,000 this week despite lackluster reviews and Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight went wide and pulled in a tidy $16,240,000. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler continue to rake in the cash with their Sisters and the overall box office numbers for the first week of the year was the second best of all time. It’s a great time for audiences and studios alike. It won’t last forever as this is the time of the year a lot of films without much hype are released but there are a few gems on the horizon.
Next!
The Revenant finally reaches screens this coming weekend. The Leonardo Dicaprio/Tom Hardy flick will be an endurance test for squeamish audiences but it’s the last of the big awards magnet films to attain wide release and it’ll certainly dip into The Hateful Eight‘s bottom line. For audiences wanting to get scared there’s The Forest but things don’t really get kicking for high profile features until later in the month. There are a few movies that actually have a chance of reaching a sizable audience.
Films to look for are Michael Bay’s 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi on the 15th, The 5th Wave on the 22nd, Kung Fu Panda 3 on the 29th, Pride and Prejudice With Zombies and the latest Coen Brothers film Hail, Caesar! on February 5th.
In all likelihood we’ll still be talking about The Force Awakens then.
Source: Box Office Mojo