Page 29 - Aruba Today
P. 29
PEOPLE & ARTS A29
Tuesday 24 November 2015
Can ‘The Force Awakens’ become the biggest movie ever?
multiple generations. The 3 — with heavily parodied
movie also has a much big- characters like Jar Jar Binks
ger Chinese box office to and video-game-like ac-
tap. “Avatar” pulled down tion scenes — and the sat-
a monstrous $204 million in isfying revival that fans are
China through 2010, but hoping for.
the theatrical market there “The brand name alone
is now at least three times and the excitement for
as big. The big unknown is the franchise will get huge
that no one’s actually seen numbers in the door,” Ren-
the movie yet. trak senior media analyst
It could make the differ- Paul Dergarabedian said.
ence between the so-so “But for very long-term pros-
reaction to the “Star Wars” pects, you have to have a
prequels in Episodes 1 to movie that delivers.”q
This photo provided by Disney shows Daisey Ridley as Rey, left, and John Boyega as Finn, in a
scene from the new film, “Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens,” directed by J.J. Abrams.
The movie releases in the U.S. on Dec. 18, 2015. Associated Press
RYAN NAKASHIMA “Star Wars” will have had 51,800 weekly search-
AP Business Writer the advantage of hav- es a month from release,
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Rid- ing weak competition for according to Moviepilot.
ing galaxy-sized expecta- months. Marvel’s “Dead- “People are searching
tions, the new “Star Wars” pool” doesn’t come out and craving and demand-
movie is already setting re- until mid-February, while ing content,” Moviepilot
cords for pre-opening tick- Warner Bros.’ “Batman v CEO Tobi Bauckhage said.
et sales, with still a month Superman: Dawn of Jus- “That’s a very strong sig-
to go. But does that mean tice” isn’t out until late nal.”
the movie’s destined to be March. To be sure, December re-
the biggest of all time? “I think it’s going to own leases tend to be smaller
Though several signs point January,” said Erik Davis, than in the summer, so
in that direction, the out- managing editor of Fan- coming out on top may
come isn’t guaranteed. dango, one of the nation’s take a marathon rather
The movie is on track to largest online ticket retail- than a sprint.
have the biggest Decem- ers. “I know one guy who As for the all-time high, one
ber opening ever, topping has nine tickets to see it in thing “Avatar” had go-
“The Hobbit: An Unexpect- the first week alone. That’s ing for it: It rode a wave of
ed Journey,” which took what we’re talking about.” consumer interest in 3-D,
in $85 million in the U.S. A single ticket in big cities which costs a few dollars
and Canada on its open- can cost $25 or more after more than regular tick-
ing weekend in December paying for extras like Imax ets. That frenzy has largely
2012. and 3-D. cooled off. Traditionalists
Ticket seller Fandango says Social media activity is with a nostalgia for the
advance ticket sales for also off the charts, accord- originals might prefer 2-D
“Star Wars: Episode VII — ing to entertainment news screenings, especially with
The Force Awakens” has website Moviepilot Inc. director J.J. Abrams’ use of
already topped every oth- Exactly a month from re- more realistic-looking spe-
er movie, though it didn’t lease, “The Force Awak- cial effects like puppetry.
provide figures. Imax says ens” had 405 million trailer The Walt Disney Co., which
it has sold $18 million do- and teaser views on Face- owns “Star Wars” maker Lu-
mestically, double the pre- book and YouTube. That’s casfilm, declined to com-
vious record. Imax receipts 87 percent more than this ment.
account for a third of pre- summer’s “Jurassic World,” Advance sales don’t al-
release sales for this movie, which opened domestical- ways equate to record
putting the domestic total ly with a record $208.8 mil- grosses. The first installment
at more than $50 million. lion in ticket sales and owns of “The Hunger Games”
Whether it bests the biggest the all-time No. 3 spot with was the leader in advance
grosser of all time — “Ava- $1.7 billion worldwide. No. sales, but topped out at
tar,” with $2.8 billion world- 2 is “Titanic,” at $2.1 billion. a worldwide gross of $693
wide — depends on word What’s more, the 178,000 million, not even in the all-
of mouth and whether fans weekly searches for the time Top 10.
love it enough to watch it movie on Google is more What “The Force Awakens”
multiple times through the than three times as high benefits from, however,
new year. as “Jurassic World,” which is interest that now spans
