Even when accounting for inflation, Disney and Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens is on track to become the highest-grossing movie in the series — save for the first Star Wars, released in 1977.
The blockbuster finished New Year’s Day with a domestic total of $686.4 million, besting the original North American runs of Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back ($679 million), Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith ($510.8 million) and Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones ($447.8 million). All grosses have been adjusted for inflation.
And sometime over New Year’s weekend, Force Awakens will leap past the original runs of Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace ($730.4 million) and Star Wars: Episode VI — Return of the Jedi ($697.3 million). Again, that’s adjusted.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens could get to a box office in North America of $1 billion to 1.2 billion. If there are huge amounts of repeated viewing from February to May then it could hold on and threaten even the inflation adjusted total of the first Star Wars.
Nextbigfuture ran a survey asking if Star Wars 7 or Avengers 2 would have the larger global box office. Star Wars 7 is expected to have more box office by 73% of those surveyed.
73% believed Star Wars 7 will exceed $2 billion in global box office.
46% believe Star Wars 7 could pass Titanic in global box office and 35% think Star Wars 7 could become the largest non-inflational adjusted global movie box office.
Top inflation adjusted movies by North American box office
Top movies in the world without inflation adjustment
Star Wars: The Force Awakens should beat the global totals of Titanic (without adjusting for inflation) and could possibly reach Avatar.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.