Star Wars: The Force Awakens continues record streak in China

By Dan Isacsson January 10, 2016

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Can anybody get a good idea of the potential revenue for the next Star Wars movie? Because this train of broken records isn’t stopping. The movie recently crushed the previous box office record set by Avatar by an impressive margin (James Cameron’s epic sci-fi film made $760.5 million in 318 days). Star Wars: The Force Awakens achieved the same numbers in less than a month. That’s mighty impressive.

So while the film’s performance in China may not be the first thing that comes to mind, it makes sense when we hear that it set another impressive record over there. According to Chinese box office tracking services, the latest installment in the space saga raked in $31.8 million on Saturday alone. It was responsible for 70 percent of the country’s total domestic ticket sales that day. The movie is estimated to have earned $53 million over the entire weekend.

Yet, The Force Awakens ranked third behind the Chinese comedy Lost in Hong Kong and the domestic Furious 7, which raked in $390 million at the box office in China. Becoming the highest-grossing Hollywood film in the country would be no easy feat. Maybe it had something to do with the Chinese music video that was unveiled prior to the film’s release. Considering its musical qualities, we’re hoping that’s not the case.

While all of this looks like a resounding success, Disney’s real goal is to have the biggest global release, and it still has some ways to go. While The Force Awakens may have broken plenty of domestic records, Avatar currently holds the biggest crown with $2.79 billion in global ticket sales. But considering The Force Awaken’s success in Chinese territory it doesn’t seem like too much of a long-shot.

And while we don’t have any specific proof, director J.J. Abrams should be comfortable with the movie’s “humble” success. Any extra tickets at this point are just a step towards breaking another record.

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