Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a global phenomenon, and Ireland is no different with the film racking up record-breaking box-office figures here, and worldwide. The film enjoyed not only the biggest opening day of all time, but also the biggest 4 day opening weekend of all time in Ireland and the UK.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens has already taken a staggering €2,890,539 in 4 days at the combined Northern Irish and Republic of Ireland box office, with a further €412,961 yesterday bringing the cumulative first five days to €3,303,500. The Republic of Ireland contributed €2,107,709 over the four day weekend, with €1,520,282 coming from Friday to Saturday. That €1.5m figure easily eclipsed Jurassic World‘s huge haul of €977,571 earlier this year, and almost doubled the highest figure from 2014, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1‘s €770,258. The film opened in a record 70 locations in the Republic, boasting a per-location average of €21,115, which again knocked Jurassic World (€15,274) off the top.
In the US, the film has taken an impressive $247 million domestically in its first three days, and $281 million internationally bringing the weekend global box office takings to an astounding $528 million worldwide. The film has yet to open in one of the biggest markets, China, which makes the feat all the more impressive.
Opening at midnight on Wednesday, fans flocked to cinemas to be the first to see the hugely anticipated next episode in the Star Wars saga which took €13,236,480 million on its opening day setting a new Ireland and UK industry record. Midnight screenings alone accounted for €3,309,120 million of the days box office smashing all previous records. Tickets for the highly anticipated film went on sale in October and sold more than 200,000 tickets in 24 hours. Exhibitors continually added screens to accommodate demand which resulted in a total of 2 million booked tickets ahead of the release – breaking another record for advanced ticket bookings. There are still many available seats left in cinemas across Ireland for fans who want to see the film during the week and into next weekend.
Saturday’s €11,857,680 takings were the biggest Saturday figure of all time in the Ireland and the UK, beating the two current leading 3-day openers, Skyfall and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 at this stage in release. After just 3 days in the market the film has overtaken the entire lifetime totals of The Hunger Games, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Prometheus, The Martian, Transformers, and Fast & Furious 6. After just 4 days Star Wars: The Force Awakens sits comfortably in the Irish Box Office Top 10 of 2015.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens sees Lucasfilm and director J.J. Abrams join forces to take audiences back to a galaxy far, far away as Star Wars returns to the big screen. The film stars Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew and Max Von Sydow. Kathleen Kennedy, J.J. Abrams and Bryan Burk are producing with Tommy Harper and Jason McGatlin serving as executive producers. The screenplay is by J.J. Abrams & Lawrence Kasdan and Michael Arndt.