GLOBAL movie sensation Star Wars: The Force Awakens has smashed the United States box office record to become the all-time leader in cinematic history in that country with a force of $764, 4 million as of Wednesday last week.
BY TATIRA ZWINOIRA
The film took the title from the James Cameron directed film Avatar released in 2009 which had a final tally of $760,5 million and before that another Cameron film, Titanic (1997) $658,6 million.
The science fiction spectacle has broken at least 16 box office records in its journey to achieve glory in the United States.
Some of these records include the best all-time opening weekend of $247,9 million, fastest film to cross the $500 million, $600 million and $700 million with Hollywood analysts predicting it will cross the $800 and $900 million mark with the former set to be crossed as early as today.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens comes 38 years after the Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope debuted in 1977 followed by Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983), Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999), Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002), Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005) and the current instalment.
But the new film was not stingy with all the records as its performance helped push the overall box office in the United States over the Christmas weekend to the best one over the period with $296, 4 million, for all films that weekend. Also, its record performance pushed the United States box office in 2015 to $11 billion for the first time in history.
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The movie came from international film studio Disney from The Walt Disney Company who bought the franchise for a reported whopping $4 billion from Star Wars creator George Lucas in 2012 from his company Lucas film.
It was reported from media in the United State that some die-hard fans are watching the film repeatedly which is contributing to its overall box office success.
The film’s story picks up 30 years after events of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi where hero Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) has disappeared at a time where the evil empire has returned to take over the galaxy.
As such, the evil empire tasks the films new big baddie Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) to hunt down Skywalker to prevent him from stopping them.
However, the film’s new heroes Finn (John Boyega), Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) cross paths which lead them to do everything in their power to stop the empire.
One issue of contention among critics, however, has been how Star Wars: The Force Awakens borrowed its story from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope offering very little new material. This includes its many misdirection’s in the build-up to its release, lack of adequate character development and not giving the films new stars a chance in the spotlight.
International critic website Rotten Tomatoes has awarded the film 93% rating.
