‘Star Wars’ earns $52 million in opening weekend in China

January 11 21:15 2016

Disney and Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens made a stellar landing in the Middle Kingdom on Saturday, Jan. 9 grossing an estimated $33 million to score the biggest Saturday opening ever in China for any film, according to preliminary results released by Disney, The Hollywood Reporter said.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens” has proved to be a real box office hit.

There’s a lot to tackle with these characters and with the groundwork laid out in The Force Awakens, the film can dive into what makes these characters tick.

The film took the title from the James Cameron directed film Avatar released in 2009 which had a final tally of $760,5 million and before that another Cameron film, Titanic (1997) $658,6 million. More recently, many noticed that Rey was not one of the figures that were part of a multi-generational Star Wars Monopoly set, leading Hasbro to decide to add her later this year. “So I’m just so happy that all the work everyone did, even people you don’t see in the movie – puppeteers who were painted out, I’d watched them in 125-degree heat in Abu Dhabi bring BB-8 to life – I’m just so glad people get to see all the work this wonderful cast and crew did”. Researcher Rentrak Corp. estimates Furious 7 generated $391.4 million in the country in 2015 and Monster Hunt, a Chinese fantasy movie, grossed $393.2 million.

Such was the movie’s hold on American movie-goers that it overshadowed what otherwise would have been a phenomenal North American performance for “The Revenant”. Already buzzing for Oscars in categories like best director and best actor, 20th Century Fox’s domestic distribution chief Chris Aronson said The Revenant surprisingly brought in mainstream audiences despite its at-times graphic material.

Also in its third week in theaters, it made US$15 million. Domestically, it has pulled $39.5 million so far. And while that’s all very intriguing, here’s hoping that Episode VIII doesn’t hue too closely to what has come before – a criticism levelled at Abrams’ film in that it stuck to the tried and tested formula of A New Hope.

Third place went to Will Ferrell comedy Daddy’s Home, followed by horror movie The Forest and the Tina Fey and Amy Poehler vehicle Sisters. Star Wars: The Force Awakens, $US41.6 million ($US104.3 million) 2.

'Star Wars' stays on top for fourth week

‘Star Wars’ earns $52 million in opening weekend in China
 
 
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