Star Wars overtakes Jurassic World for third in global sales

The comedy eked out a spot in the Top 3 over The Forest, the horror film featuring Game of Thrones star Natalie Dormer. Its $38 million was still a strong opening for the month of January. Unless Star Wars has wonderful holds internationally however, Avatar should remain the all-time champ internationally and worldwide.

TMZ report that ‘the new film will reportedly follow a group of rebel alliance attempting to steal plans for the Death Star’. But since we know absolutely nothing official about Episode VIII so far, we’ll take what we can get. Right now it is looking like at least $120 million in the USA and perhaps more; overseas grosses should make it a profitable investment for Fox.

Also in its third week in theaters, it made $15 million. Nike slid 0.3%, after closing up 1.2%. However, it was almost defeated by Leonardo DiCaprio and his bear.

Fifth on the list was Sisters, with Amy Poehler and Tina Fey, at $7.2 million its fourth week out. That’s a slip of 44% from last weekend. $100 million is an unlikely goal, but it may be able to reach $90 before it completes its run. The budget was $30 million. That is his second-highest wide release drop of all-time, just behind Grindhouse’s 63% fall in 2007. But it has to be considered a disappointing take at this point.

The Big Short is up for a number of top Golden Globes, including best picture for a comedy or musical.

In Canada and the US, the movie is now the biggest grossing ever and the first to surpass the $800 million mark with a current total of $812 million. The Jennifer Lawrence-starring drama now has $46.6 million domestically and $70.7 million worldwide.

“I’m very happy that these Star Wars books, especially those for children and teenagers, have been introduced to China, so our children will know about this fantastic genre of literature, about imagination and about human aspirations”, he said. While that may seem like a lot, it’s weak when compared to films such as Avengers: Age of Ultron which opened to $155 million previous year.

Star Wars posted a strong Saturday to claim 1st place for the fourth straight weekend. Where available, the latest global numbers for Friday through Sunday are also included.