Star Wars: The Force Awakens has overtaken the dinosaur thriller, Jurassic Park, setting a new record for a worldwide debut.
The final numbers are still being tallied, but in an interview with Bloomberg today, Disney chief Bob Iger suggested that receipts for the “Star Wars” sequel had come in higher than initial estimates had suggested.
It appears that the film will have hit a global record of $528 million. The film’s global tally was originally $517 million, but domestic numbers are higher than expected, around $247 million.
“That’s an incredible weekend,” Iger told Bloomberg, “What this really does is it sets this great franchise up for far more value creation over a longer period of time for the company.”
What’s particularly impressive is that the figure was achieved without the help of China, the world’s second biggest market for film.
The Force Awakens doesn’t debut in China until January 9, 2016. “Jurassic World” made more than $90 million from that country during its opening weekend.
For Iger, “Star Wars” is “more than a movie,” because the characters and stories appear on lunch boxes, toylines and theme park rides. That merchandising potential is part of the reason that Disney spent more than $4 billion buying Lucasfilm in 2012.
“Star Wars,” is probably the most valuable, maybe even the most important mythology created in our time,” the Disney chief said.
Even without China, “Star Wars” enjoyed a massive global roll-out. The film debuted on over 30,000 screens internationally, scoring first place finishes in every major market where it debuted, with the exception of Korea and Vietnam.
