"Star Wars: The Force Awakens" is on pace to overtake James Cameron's "Avatar" as the top-grossing film of all-time at the worldwide box office, according to Yahoo!
The film enjoyed its wide release on Friday, Dec. 18, and has since shattered box office records. The movie took in a record-breaking $40 million just on Monday following a $248 million opening weekend, dethroning "Jurassic World." As of now, "The Force Awakens" has earned a worldwide total of upwards of $610 million. Wow.
The seventh film in the "Star Wars" saga will guarantee that 2015 is the biggest year at the domestic box office in film history with more than $11 billion.
"Of course this is an estimate only, and will be updated when final tallies are in through December 31," Paul Dergarabedian, the box office tracker's senior media analyst, said Tuesday.
"Avatar" currently sits atop the rankings with a mind-boggling $2.78 billion worldwide total.
"Are we looking at the first $3 billion movie ever?" Dergarabedian wondered. "If any film can do it, it's this one."
If "The Force Awakens" maintains its current pace, it should cross the $1 billion mark this coming weekend, topping the previous record for fastest to that point set by "Jurassic World," which accomplished the feat in 13 days.
The best part is, "Star Wars" shows absolutely no signs of slowing down.
"I could certainly see it landing north of $200 million this weekend," said Jeff Brock, Exhibitor Relations senior analyst. "This is all uncharted territory, but you look at what 'Avatar' and 'Titanic' did in their second weekends and you have to think, why not?"
"Avatar" dropped less than 2 percent in its second weekend while "Titanic" actually went up domestically in its second weekend. Considering that "The Force Awakens" didn't even open in China yet, easily the second most important market behind the United States, "Avatar's" box office total seems well within its reach.
We'll keep you posted as the numbers continue to roll in.
