International Box Office: The Force Awakens tops $1.5 Billion Ahead of Chinese Debut

January 6th, 2016

It's an odd week on the international box office chart, as Star Wars: The Force Awakens is the only Hollywood film in the top five. The latest Star Wars instalment earned $96.3 million over the weekend for an international total of $770.5 million. Its Worldwide total rose to $1.513 billion. At the end of business on Sunday, the film was in third place for the year on the worldwide chart, but that has since changed. It is also in fifth place on the yearly international chart. However, the film opens in China this week and it could jump into third place just due to its opening in that territory. More...

International Box Office: The Force Awakens Becomes Fastest to $1 Billion

December 30th, 2015

Star Wars: The Force Awakens remained on top of the international chart with $133.3 million for a total of $546.0 million after just two weeks of release. Worldwide, the film already has $1.086 billion, putting it in the top 20 all-time after just two weeks of release, although it is still in fifth place for the year. It has been an amazing year on the top. It reached the $1 billion mark in just 12 days, beating Jurassic World's previous record by just one day. Granted, Jurassic World had China to boost its sales. The U.K. remains the film's biggest market with $98.07 million after two weeks of release, including $15.13 million this past weekend. It has also cracked $50 million in Germany ($55.28 million) and is getting close to that milestone in France ($46.14 million). One other note, 2015 became the first year the Walt Disney studio earned $5 billion worldwide in one calendar year. It is still well behind the overall record of $6.8 billion, set by Universal this year. More...

Limited and VOD Releases: Eight Reasons to Love Limited Releases

December 25th, 2015

While there are a massive number of wide releases / wide expansions this week, there are very few limited releases. Generally by this time of year, the competition from previously released Awards Season contenders is just too much. The only type of film that can truly thrive is one that has a lot of pre-release buzz. This year, this includes The Hateful Eight, which has the widest opening on this week's list and expands truly wide next week, as well as The Revenant, which expands wide early in January. More...