Weekend Wrap-Up: Box Office Breaks $300 million Mark

December 21, 2015

It's been a busy weekend for box office record watchers, as Star Wars: The Force Awakens destroyed the record book. However, it wasn't the only film playing in theaters. The Force Awakens earned $247.97 million, which by itself is the 11th biggest Combined Box Office. Add in Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip and Sisters, the new limited releases and all of the holdovers, and the total box office reached $313 million, topping the old record of $274 million. Needless to say, the overall box office was higher compared to last weekend by 304%. It was also higher than last year by a margin of 131%. Year-to-date, 2015 has earned $10.13 billion, putting it 5.9% or $560 million ahead of last year's pace. 2015's lead over 2014 grew by more than 1.5 percentage points / $160 million over just one weekend.

We've already talked about Star Wars: The Force Awakens' opening weekend result, as well as some of the records it has already broken. But let's have some fun talking about records. The film's opening day was 41% higher than the previous record for biggest opening weekend in December. Its Opening Weekend Record of $247.97 million makes it the seventh biggest hit of the year after just three days of release. It is re-writing the fastest milestone records, and will claim another of those today. It is already in the Top 100 All-Time Domestic Box Office. It is still too soon to tell where it will finish, but once we see its Christmas Day / Weekend numbers, we will have a much better idea how far up that list it will climb.

Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip earned second place with $14.29 million over the weekend. Its reviews are simply awful, but its CinemaScore was A minus, so clearly the target audience loved the film. It is also a family film opening right before Christmas, so its legs should be great.

Sisters was right behind in third place with $13.92 million. Its reviews are good, but it won't benefit as much from Christmas as Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip will. That said, it should have no trouble becoming a solid midlevel hit.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 reached $250 million over the weekend after earning $5.69 million over the past three days. Its running tally of $254.48 million after a month of release is less than originally anticipated, but is still a huge amount.

Creed remained in the top five one last weekend with $5.01 million over the weekend for a total of $87.83 million after four weeks of release. It is on pace to reach $100 million, but it will be nearly out of the top ten before that happens.

Last week's biggest new release, In the Heart of the Sea, fell to eighth place with just $3.48 million over the weekend for a ten-day total of $18.62 million.

There were also two Bollywood films in the top ten, which is a record. Dilwale earned ninth place with $1.92 million in 265 theaters over the weekend for a total opening of $2.03 million, including previews. Bajirao Mastani was next with $1.74 million in 304 theaters.

C.S.Strowbridge

Filed under: Weekend Wrap-up, In the Heart of the Sea, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2, Star Wars Ep. VII: The Force Awakens, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip, Sisters, Creed, Bajirao Mastani, Dilwale, Star Wars

Weekend Wrap-Up: Box Office Breaks $300 million Mark

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