Thanks to the record-smashing success of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the Mouse House entered lightspeed at the box office. As the film’s second week in U.S. theaters begins, Disney announced its earnings have surpassed $2 billion domestically.
On Christmas Day, Star Wars raked in another $49.3 million domestically and $27.5 million internationally, yielding a global Christmas Day total of $76.8 million. This now brings the total global earnings for The Force Awakens to $890.3 million ($440.4 million).
And with another day comes another record broken. Robert Downey Jr.’s Sherlock Holmespreviously held the record for highest-grossing Christmas Day domestic release with $24.6 million, which was even higher than Avatar’s earnings ($23.1 million). The Force Awakens earned more than twice that amount.
Joy and Daddy’s Home, two other Christmas Day releases, also made impressive debuts, considering ticket sales for the holiday aren’t typically eye-popping. The Will Ferrell-led comedy opened in second place with $15.7 million domestic, while David O. Russell’s latest J-Law team-up scored third with $6.9 million domestic.
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These results put Star Wars on track to cross into the $1 billion threshold by the end of the coming week. Rentrak also noted this holiday weekend is poised to become the largest on record for the North American box office.
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