This Weekend @ The BoxOffice: 2015_Dec.27

With the largest second weekend of all-time, Star Wars: The Force Awakens has now grossed more than $544 million domestically and another $546 million internationally, totaling over $1 billion in worldwide ticket sales in just twelve days. Along with five other new wide releases, it also sits atop the second largest weekend of all-time with the top twelve films grossing over $285 million as Daddy's Home defied expectations, cruising to an easy second place finish with an estimated $38.8 million. Otherwise, expectations were mostly met when it comes to fellow newcomers in Joy, Concussion and Point Break while The Hateful Eight performed quite well in its limited, 100 theater debut.

Topping the weekend for a second straight weekend with an estimated $153.5 million, Star Wars is now the second highest grossing domestic release of 2015 with $544.5 million and the 15th highest grossing worldwide release of all-time. It's also now the record holder for the largest second weekend of all-time, besting Jurassic World's previous record by a massive $46.9 million. In fact, the records are piling up so quickly it's becoming ridiculous as it is now the fastest movie to cross $100, $150, $200, $300, $350, $400, $450 and $500 million as well as holds the largest three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and ten day gross. For even more of the over 35 records it now holds click here.

Force Awakens has topped the two largest weekends of all-time and next weekend the only added competition is the expansion of Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight. Avatar's domestic box office record of $760.5 million is very much in sight as Force Awakens is currently only $215.9 million shy of that number and has only been in domestic theaters for ten days. The question right now doesn't necessarily seem to be a matter of "if", but "when" followed by "How much?" A 3.5 times multiplier based on its opening weekend alone projects a $867.8 million domestic run... could it possibly go higher? A drop of 50% next weekend would still be enough to claim the largest third weekend of all-time as the stars seemed to be properly aligned for continued Star Wars box office glory.

Looking at the Christmas weekend's new wide releases we first come to the impressive performance of Paramount's Daddy's Home. Reuniting Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg, the well-timed, PG-13 rated comedy scored an estimated $38.8 million and a second place finish. This was well above expectations and an improvement over the $35.5 million Ferrell and Wahlberg's The Other Guys opened with back in 2010.

In third was Joy, the latest film from David O. Russell and his troupe of actors led by Jennifer Lawrence alongside Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro. The film matched expectations with an estimated $17.5 million, but with middling reviews it doesn't seem like this will match the success of Russell's most recent efforts. This was also the first film from Russell that went wide in its opening weekend since Three Kings in 1999. His last three films all opened in limited release, riding a wave of positive reviews and award nominations to solid box office returns with both American Hustle and Silver Linings Playbook finishing well above $100 million. Depending on second weekend returns, Joy will probably finish around $50-60 million.

Also finishing as expected, the Will Smith drama Concussion tallied $11 million for the weekend along with an "A" CinemaScore. Smith did score a Golden Globe nomination for his performance, but to give this one much of a chance moving forward he's going to have to hear his name announced as an Oscar nominee come January 14, otherwise the legs on this one are likely to tire soon.

Expanding wide this weekend, Adam McKay's The Big Short brought in an estimated $10.5 million from 1,585 theaters, topping the Warner Bros. Point Break remake. Opening day audiences awarded Point Break a very generous "B" CinemaScore to go along with an estimated $10.2 million for the three day weekend. Expect this one to sink like a stone over the coming weeks.

We finally come to Tarantino's The Hateful Eight, which brought in an estimated $4.5 million from just 100 theaters for an impressive $45,366 per theater average. This is a strong opening for the three-plus hour Western epic, which will expand into over 1,800 theaters nationwide on December 31 in a slightly condensed, two hour and 47 minute version.

In limited release, Fox Searchlight's The Revenant kicked things off in four theaters with an impressive $471,000 for a $117,750 per theater average. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy, the film is directed by the Oscar-winning director of Birdman, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, and has generated considerable buzz for both its actors and director as well as cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki. The film is set to expand to over 2,700 theaters on January 8.

Also opening in limited release, 45 Years starring Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay brought in $93,882 from three theaters.

Not to be overlooked, also contributing to the massive Christmas weekend, Universal's Sisters dropped only 0.3% for a second weekend, fourth place finish with an estimated $13.8 million, bringing its cume to $37.1 million.

On one final note, while the domestic run for The Peanuts Movie is winding down, it has expanded its international reach and brought in an estimated $25 million this weekend from 9,332 screens in 49 markets over the Christmas weekend. The international cume stands at $45m, with 14 additional markets releasing within the next two weeks.

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With two days left in 2015, the overall domestic box office for the calendar year has crossed $11 billion for the first time ever. The record pace at which Star Wars: The Force Awakens has reached $600+ million over the last twelve days was obviously the push the box office needed to reach that mark, but it wasn't alone in making an impact on the year.

Ten films made over $200 million at the 2015 box office, with previous opening weekend record holder Jurassic World currently the year's highest grossing film with over $652 million. Star Wars will likely pass that total over the next couple of days, making it the 2015 domestic champion before moving on to pass Avatar's all-time domestic record, perhaps as soon as the end of this coming weekend.

The $11+ billion grossed in 2015 bests the 2013 total of $10.9 billion when The Hunger Games: Catching Fire led the box office. In order to hit that mark a host of records were broken.

One of the year's biggest achievements finds a 2014 release earning a spot in the 2015 calendar year top ten. Clint Eastwood's American Sniper opened in four theaters on Christmas Day in 2014, but it wasn't until January 16, 2015 that it expanded and broke the January opening weekend record. With a domestic total of over $350 million, 99.6% of American Sniper's domestic box office was earned in 2015.

Beyond American Sniper's record breaking weekend in January, Fifty Shades of Grey broke the opening weekend record in February, Furious 7 broke the April opening weekend record, Jurassic World broke the June opening weekend record, Hotel Transylvania 2 broke the September opening weekend record and Star Wars: The Force Awakens broke the December and all-time opening weekend records among several others. And don't forget, Avengers: Age of Ultron fell just shy of the May opening weekend record with a massive $191.2 million opening, $16.1 million short of its record holding predecessor.

While Disney has enjoyed their share of hits over the course of the year it was Universal that came out on top of the studio charts, accounting for approximately 21.6% of the 2015 box office total. Disney was a close second with 19.2% of the market share followed by Warner Bros (14.1%) and 20th Century Fox (11.3%). Universal more than doubled the amount of money the studio made in 2014, grossing over $2.4 billion this year thanks to chart toppers such as Jurassic World, Furious 7 and Minions, all of which made over $330 million.

Of course, sky-rocketing ticket prices and the top-heavy nature of the 2015 box office shouldn't be overlooked. You have to go all the way back to 2001 to find a calendar year where fewer films made over $25 million, all while the average ticket price has climbed from $5.66 in 2001 to $8.34 in 2015.

In 2001, only 91 films made over $25 million while 2015 boasts only 95. Additionally, 34.5% of 2015's box office is attributable to the year's top ten films. Looking at the past 15 years, no other year has seen the top ten account for more than 30% of the overall calendar box office, the closest being 2012 when 29.7% of the year's $10.8 billion was generated by the top ten films, led by The Avengers' $623.3 million. However, during that same time period, 2012 boasted the largest number of films to cross $25 million in a calendar year with 113. The average number of films making $25M+ in a calendar year during that time frame is 104, which begs the question as to whether this is a "one off" year or if subsequent years are only going to continue to get more and more top heavy.

Based on average ticket prices, 2015 ranks 18th out of the last 36 years with an estimated 1.32 billion tickets sold. Top of the list is 2002 with an estimated 1.575 billion tickets sold when the average ticket price was $5.81. Spider-Man topped the box office in 2002, a year where 105 films made over $25 million and the top ten accounted for 25.7% of the year's overall gross. All of these stats are before adjusting for inflation and no one is expecting ticket prices to fall in 2016, so perhaps $11+ billion a year will become the new norm. On top of that, the major studios aren't slowing down when it comes to focusing a vast majority of their attention on a large slate of sequels and blockbusters, all of which are hoping for their own place in the record books.

The first 100M+ opening in 2015 was Furious 7 in April, but it could come a few weeks earlier in 2016 as Warner Bros. preps Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice for a late March release, the same weekend that saw the first The Hunger Games bring in $152.5 million back in 2012. From there we can look forward to several franchise sequels, franchise hopefuls and not to forget the next installment in a string of many more Star Wars movies in the form of Rogue One next December.

Prior to the release of The Force Awakens we noted how much the industry has changed in not only the 38 years since the first Star Wars film was released, but in just the last six, since Avatar blew away box office records. Now, the gap has closed even further and we won't have to wait long to see how much more the marketplace will change in the coming year.

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