Off the wire
• Croatian parliament to elect new speaker of parliament Monday  • Slovakia considers migration crisis, EU Presidency as top challenges in 2016  • Algerian troops kill 109 militants in 2015  • 3 Turkish soldiers killed in PKK attack  • News Analysis: Oil prices to remain low well into 2016  • U.S. police fatally shoot nearly 1,000 civilians in 2015: report  • Yearender: Britain resets int'l strategy on complicated world stage in 2015  • Beijingers buy one sixth of China's masks: report  • Man arrested 21 years after murdering 4  • China's online retail volume to top other countries: commerce minister  
You are here: 　 Home

New "Star Wars" film exceeds 1 billion dollar mark in global box office at record pace

Xinhua, December 28, 2015 Adjust font size:

Disney's "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," the latest installment of the blockbuster science fiction franchise, on Sunday hit the 1 billion U.S. dollars mark in global box office at record pace, according to Rentrak.

The blockbuster installment, the seventh of the kind, posted the biggest second-weekend box office total ever recorded in North America by raking in more than 153 million U.S. dollars in the United States and Canada, according to box office figures gathered by Rentrak.

The latest installment of the "Star Wars" franchise took over the previous second weekend record of 106.6 million dollars set by "Jurassic World" earlier this year by 46.9 million dollars. "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" has grossed 544 million dollars in North America since it was released in North America ten days ago.

Of this weekend's overall gross for "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," IMAX grosses made up an estimated 19 million dollars. Total IMAX grosses of the new blockbuster film have exceeded 70 million dollars in North America.

Paramount's comedy film "Daddy's Home," starring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg, came in the second place in North America box office this weekend, which took in 38.8 million dollars in its first weekend showings at 3,271 theaters. The film only got 28 percent positive rating from critics on RottenTomatoes, but audience still gave it a solid "B+" rating on CinemaScore.

The film "Joy," directed by David O. Russell and starring Jennifer Lawrence, was ranked the third. It was shown at 2,896 locations for opening and grossed 17.5 million dollars. "Joy" received a good "B+" rating from first-night moviegoers on CinemaScore and got 57 percent approval rate from critics on RottenTomatoes.

The fourth was "Sisters," a comedy which made 13.9 million dollars in ticket earnings for its second weekend. And the fifth was "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip," with 12.7 million dollars in ticket earnings.

Rounding out the rest 10 most-popular movies of the weekend were "Concussion" (11 million dollars), "The Big Short" (10.5 million), "Point Break" (10.2 million), "Hunger Games: Mockingjay -- Part 2" (5.3 million) and "The Hateful Eight" (4.5 million). Endit