Great Box Office Collection For Big Millenium Movie .

1. by Brad Brevet
December 27, 2015
With the largest second weekend of all-time, Star Wars: The
Force Awakens has now grossed more than $544 million
domestically and another $546 million internationally, totaling
over $1 billion in worldwide ticket sales in just twelve days. Along
with five other new wide releases, it also sits atop the second largest
weekend of all-time with the top twelve films grossing over $285
million as Daddy's Home defied expectations, cruising to an easy
second place finish with an estimated $38.8 million. Otherwise,
expectations were mostly met when it comes to fellow newcomers
in Joy, Concussion andPoint Break while The Hateful
Eight performed quite well in its limited, 100 theater debut.
Topping the weekend for a second straight weekend with an
estimated $153.5 million, Star Wars is now the second highest
grossing domestic release of 2015 with$544.5 million and the 15th
highest grossing worldwide release of all-time. It's also now the
record holder for the largest second weekend of all-time,
besting Jurassic World's previous record by a massive $46.9
million. In fact, the records are piling up so quickly it's becoming
ridiculous as it is now the fastest movie to cross $100, $150, $200,
$300, $350, $400, $450 and $500 million as well as holds the largest
three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and ten day gross. For even
more of the over 35 records it now holds click here.
Force Awakens has topped the two largest weekends of all-time
and next weekend the only added competition is the expansion
of Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight. Avatar's domestic box
office record of $760.5 million is very much in sight as Force

2. Awakens is currently only $215.9 million shy of that number and
has only been in domestic theaters for ten days. The question right
now doesn't necessarily seem to be a matter of "if", but "when"
followed by "How much?" A 3.5 times multiplier based on its opening
weekend alone projects a $867.8 million domestic run... could it
possibly go higher? A drop of 50% next weekend would still be
enough to claim the largest third weekend of all-time as the stars
seemed to be properly aligned for continued Star Wars box office
glory.
Looking at the Christmas weekend's new wide releases we first come
to the impressive performance of Paramount's Daddy's Home.
Reuniting Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg, the well-timed, PG-13
rated comedy scored an estimated $38.8 million and a second
place finish. This was well above expectations and an improvement
over the $35.5 million Ferrell and Wahlberg's The Other
Guys opened with back in 2010.
In third was Joy, the latest film from David O. Russell and his
troupe of actors led by Jennifer Lawrencealongside Bradley
Cooper and Robert De Niro. The film matched expectations with
an estimated $17.5 million, but with middling reviews it doesn't
seem like this will match the success of Russell's most recent efforts.
This was also the first film from Russell that went wide in its opening
weekend since Three Kings in 1999. His last three films all opened
in limited release, riding a wave of positive reviews and award
nominations to solid box office returns with both American
Hustle and Silver Linings Playbook finishing well above $100
million. Depending on second weekend returns, Joy will probably
finish around $50-60 million.
Also finishing as expected, the Will
Smith drama Concussion tallied $11 million for the weekend
along with an "A" CinemaScore. Smith did score a Golden Globe
nomination for his performance, but to give this one much of a
chance moving forward he's going to have to hear his name
announced as an Oscar nominee come January 14, otherwise the
legs on this one are likely to tire soon.

3. Expanding wide this weekend, Adam McKay's The Big
Short brought in an estimated $10.5 million from 1,585 theaters,
topping the Warner Bros. Point Break remake. Opening day
audiences awarded Point Break a very generous "B" CinemaScore
to go along with an estimated $10.2 million for the three day
weekend. Expect this one to sink like a stone over the coming weeks.
We finally come to Tarantino's The Hateful Eight, which brought in
an estimated $4.5 million from just 100 theaters for an
impressive $45,366 per theater average. This is a strong opening
for the three-plus hour Western epic, which will expand into over
1,800 theaters nationwide on December 31 in a slightly condensed,
two hour and 47 minute version.
In limited release, Fox Searchlight's The Revenant kicked things off
in four theaters with an impressive$471,000 for a $117,750 per
theater average. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy, the
film is directed by the Oscar-winning director
of Birdman, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, and has generated
considerable buzz for both its actors and director as well as
cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki. The film is set to expand to
over 2,700 theaters on January 8.
Also opening in limited release, 45 Years starring Charlotte
Rampling and Tom Courtenay brought in$93,882 from three
theaters.
Not to be overlooked, also contributing to the massive Christmas
weekend, Universal's Sisters dropped only 0.3% for a second
weekend, fourth place finish with an estimated $13.8 million,
bringing its cume to $37.1 million.
On one final note, while the domestic run for The Peanuts Movie is
winding down, it has expanded its international reach and brought in
an estimated $25 million this weekend from 9,332 screens in 49
markets over the Christmas weekend. The international cume stands
at $45m, with 14 additional markets releasing within the next two
weeks.

4. You can browse the complete weekend estimates right here and, as
the holidays continue, don't expect full actual results until around
January 4, 2016.
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On Twitter, follow us at @boxofficemojo and author Brad Brevet
at @bradbrevet.