Already bought your tickets to Star Wars: The Force Awakens? If so, it would appear you’re not alone. In fact, pretty soon it may be hard to find someone who hasn’t. When tickets first went on sale last month, the pre-sale broke records, bringing in eight times the number of tickets as The Hunger Games on Fandango. Apparently, that was just the warm-up. With a month still remaining until its release, J.J. Abrams’ seventh installment of the franchise has already sold a cool $50 million in advance ticket sales.
Exhibitor Relations tweeted the figure, along with the fact that it is two times what the previous record was, held by the original Hunger Games. So not only did it pass the record, it doubled it. The Wall Street Journal's initial report colors in the details a little more. While most IMAX screenings have sold out for opening weekend, tickets still remain in regular format. So expect that number to continue to climb, especially considering theaters continue to add showtimes to meet demand.
You’ll notice in Exhibitor Relations’ tweet that ‘$208 million is the number to beat.’ This number, as Variety explains, is what Jurassic World debuted to, setting the record for biggest opening ever. Jurassic World, of course, opened during the prime-time blockbuster months of summer, while Force Awakens is being released in the historically less- crowd-friendly month of December; for instance, December has never witnessed a film open to more than $100 million, with The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey coming the closest with a $85 million debut.
Something tells me the new Star Wars won’t be bothered by all that. Especially because, beyond theaters providing extra screenings, Force Awakens is predicted to be available at 4,000 theaters. So, like a droid meeting a stormtrooper, expect more records to break.
