Star Wars: The Force Awakens is breaking records a whole month to go before the film opens in theaters–December 18.
The seventh film in the popular franchise has generated more than $50 million in advance ticket sales.
According to Fandango, the picture is the biggest pre-seller in the history of the company, more than first Hunger Games.
Most Imax screenings have sold out, but there are tickets remaining to many shows on opening weekend. Theater chains are continually adding extra showtimes to keep up with demand.
MovieTickets.com, the country’s other major online ticketer reports that advance sales for Star Wars represent the most tickets ever sold for one film by the company when compared to all other films at the same point in roll out.
The excitement surrounding the new Star Wars is a mixed blessing for Disney, which is trying to reboot the series and kick-off a new trilogy and spin-off adventures.
The prediction is that The Force Awakens will go past the $208.8 million earned by Jurassic World’s debut to score the biggest opening in history.
But no film has ever opened to more than $100 million in December and the Christmas movie-going season is competitive one. The Force Awakens should eclipse the $85 million bow of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey to set a new benchmark for December openings.
Avatar, the highest-grossing film of all time, opened to a respectable $77 million, but what made it a phenomenon was its long legs–its endurance. Its debut was just 10% of the film’s $750 million global gross, whereas Jurassic World’s kick-off was 32% of its $652 million stateside haul.
It’s unknown how many theaters will screen The Force Awakens, but sources predict it will be on at least 4,000 theaters.
