'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' Continues to Rule the Weekend Box Office
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” topped the weekend box office on its second weekend, breaking records and reinvigorating the veteran franchise (Photo by Lucasfilm).
LOS ANGELES - “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” topped the weekend box office while smashing the Christmas Day record with $49.3 million in the U.S. on Friday. That was double the earlier record of $24.6 million from 2009's “Sherlock Holmes.”
The second weekend of Disney’s sci-fi franchise wound up the three-day holiday weekend with $149.20 million at 4,134 U.S. theaters, for a two-week total to as high as $540.06 million.
It was the biggest overall Christmas Day in U.S. box office history with more than $100 million, according to Rentrak. The previous biggest Christmas was $86 million when “Sherlock Holmes” opened and “Avatar” was in its second weekend in 2009.
Quentin Tarantino's much talked-about western, "The Hateful Eight" came in at 11th place with $4.54 million on its opening weekend due to the fact the film was playing at just 100 theaters in 70 millimeter format as an homage to westerns of a bygone era.
Paramount's Mark Wahlberg/Will Ferrell comedy "Daddy's Home" came in second with an opening weekend of $38.80 million. The Jennifer Lawrence comedy directed by David O. Russell for Fox, "Joy" came in third place with $17.50 million on its opening weekend, riding a wave of positive reviews and word-of-mouth buzz. It was followed in fourth place by Universal's raunchy comedy starring Tina Fey and Amy Poehler which earned $13.88 million which had the rare distinction of out performing its opening weekend last week which earned $12.1 million.
Fox's "Alvin and the Chipmunks The Road Chip" remained strong, dropping just 11.1 percent on its second week, with $12.70 million for a total of $39.40 million.
The rest of the top 10 stacked up this way:
6. "Concussion" (Sony) $11.0 million on its opening weekend
7. "The Big Short" (Paramount) $10.52 million for a three-week total of $16.01 million
8. "Point Break" (Warner Bros.) $10.22 million on its opening weekend
9. "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2" (Lionsgate) $5.30 million for a six-week total of $264.60 million
10. "Creed" (Warner Bros.) $4.60 million for a five-week total for $96.32 million
