Like in other countries, Chinese moviegoers trooped in numbers to cinemas when "Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens" opened in China, the last market to open. It broke records in the second-largest film market in the world.
Walt Disney Co. said on Saturday that the film generated $33 million ticket sales on its first day run that day, breaking Disney's opening day records and China's opening day record, reports Globaltimes. Updated figures say that weekend sales reached $53 million.
China will be key in the seventh installment of the movie franchise breaking the record of "Avatar" with a total $2.8 billion sales after it debuted in December 2009. So far, "Episode VII" has broken movie records in the U.S. and Canada.
Until Thursday, gross global sales has reached $1.6 billion, but Disney is expected to release updated results on Sunday. The movie, directed by J.J. Abrams, already overtook "Avatar" as the highest-grossing film in North America, excluding inflation. By Saturday, it was expected to exceed $800 million ticket sales in the U.S.
So far, it has surpassed "Jurassic World's" $1.669 billion and is third, after "Avatar" and "Titanic's" $2.19 billion, notes Chinadaily.
"Episode VII" beat the opening-day grosses in China of "Age of Ultron" ($29.2 million), "Transformers" Age of Extinction" ($27.4 million), "Terminator: Genisys" ($26.7 million) and local film "Monster Hunt" ($27.7 million).
To interest Chinese to watch the movie, since the six previous films were shown in local theaters only in June, Disney placed 500 Stormtroopers on the Great Wall of China as part of its marketing blitz and promoted the movie using China's Justin Bieber. The six prequels were shown at the Shanghai International Film Festival, reports LA Times.