There are many industry insiders who believe "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" has a good chance of overtaking James Cameron's "Avatar" as the highest grossing film of all time. To top "Avatar's" astronomical global finish of $2.78 billion at the box office, "The Force Awakens" will have to remain a potent draw for weeks after its release. Given that this is widely expected, nearly every other Christmas movie will be dwarfed by the galaxy far, far away.
But Leonardo DiCaprio isn't sweating a thing. His intense survival story "The Revenant" (directed by "Birdman's" Alejandro González Iñárritu) hits theaters December 25th, directly in the path of "Star Wars'" galactic storm. But the five-time Academy Award nominee doesn't seem the least bit worried.
"Hopefully, it just means more people are excited to go to the movies," DiCaprio told Yahoo Movies. "I think that people know this time of year is where a lot of great pieces of art are going to come out. I would never thing that we'd be able to compete with Star Wars - that's something that's embedded in our cultural DNA. But I think when people begin to hear about this movie, they'll want to go see it. And that's all we can hope for."
Along with "The Revenant," this Christmas season will also see the release of other Oscar-hyped films such as David O. Russell's "Joy" starring Jennifer Lawrence, Will Smith's "Concussion" and Quentin Tarantino's latest Western, "The Hateful Eight." That's a crowded schedule to say the least.
But Leo isn't underestimating J.J. Abrams' "Star Wars: The Force Awakens." In the same statement, he even admitted that he'll be one of the first in line to see the new movie. But it's clear that he isn't worried about being outshined completely. And when we watch the trailer for his new film, we can't say we blame him for his confidence.
"Star Wars: The Force Awakens" will hit theaters on Dec. 18 while "The Revenant" will come out on Christmas day.
