Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($2,063,298,148)

“’The Force Awakens is a genuine cultural phenomenon,” said Fandango President Paul Yanover in a statement. “The extraordinary ticketing demand is truly unprecedented. It is Fandango’s top-selling movie of all time, even before it has even hit theater screens.  It’s great to see that all fans can enjoy the ‘Star Wars’ experience, as our theater partners continue to add new screens and new showtimes every day.”

More records set by Star Wars: The Force Awakens – and the film hasn’t even opened yet. Fandango says that the J.J. Abrams film has broken the company’s record for the most tickets sold by any title during its entire theatrical run; an anomaly considering that this feat was accomplished during pre-sales. This is even better news than what Fandango told us a couple of days about their staggering, record-setting Force Awakens pre-sales. In addition, MovieTickets.com continues to report that 93% of all its tickets sales in the last 24 hours are for Force Awakens. Of those snapping up tickets, 68% are males while close to 32% are females. The average age for a Force Awakens ticket buyer is 44. In regards to the format that MovieTicket buyers plan to watch Force Awakens: 60% will see it in 2D, 23% in 3D and close to 17% will take in Imax screenings.

WyldeMan wrote:12 days after release this movie is already sitting at $1.2 billion at the box office....

Rusty Cunt wrote:

WyldeMan wrote:12 days after release this movie is already sitting at $1.2 billion at the box office....

And not a cent of it is from me.

I'll wait a few weeks so I can have a screen all to myself.

UltimateMarvel wrote:Awesome! Avatar didn't deserve that shit. I haven't watched this yet but I'd take this over Avatar any day.

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Rusty Cunt wrote:I would really like to see a director's cut of this film. I feel like there's maybe 10-15 minutes worth of material on the cutting room floor that could have really fleshed it out.

After a near six years of holding the title as the highest grossing film at the domestic box office, 20th Century Fox’s Avatar at $760.6M has fallen from its perch, ceding its reign to Disney’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens which flies past that B.O. mark today.  A gross that took Avatar 318 days to accomplish, inclusive of a special late summer 2010 re-release, has only taken Force Awakens a mere 20 days.

Globally, Episode VII, which carries an estimated production cost before P&A of $200M, stands at $1.56B.

Even more impressive, Force Awakens isn’t the widest release of all-time at 4,134 theaters; The Twilight Saga: Eclipse owns that number at 4,468. Some rival distribution chiefs when we spoke with them over the summer thought Disney was crazy: why would they even think of releasing a franchise that was born in the summer, outside of the summer? The studio along with Lucasfilm knew they were re-igniting a property that appealed to several generations. And the prime time of year when everyone from grandkids to grandparents frequents the movie on heavy basis? Christmas and New Year’s.

Of course, in this era, what has propelled Force Awakens to this B.O. benchmark faster than Avatar is the immense supply of 3D and digital screens. Since 2010, digital screens — which enable exhibitors to program more showtimes at a moment’s notice to meet demand — have shot up 168% to 41,518. Of that amount, 39% or 16,146 are 3D digital. Rentrak’s PostTrak reports that 45% of all audiences watched Force Awakens in RealD3D, 42% in 2D, and 12% in Imax.

A wise distribution executive once said “good movies rise to the occasion,” and that’s what we’re witnessing here with Force Awakens. True, rising ticket prices are a part of this film’s success, with PostTrak reporting that 52% of all moviegoer spent over $13 or more on a ticket. But so is repeat business. It’s not of unheard to say that Star Wars creator George Lucas lost his touch with Episodes I-III, leaving moviegoers with cold, empty dialogue and over-CGIed scenes topped off with bad acting. Each of the prequels scored an A- CinemaScore, while critics gradually warmed to each film with Rotten Tomatoes reporting 56% rotten for Phantom Menace, 66% for Attack of the Clones and 79% certified fresh for Revenge of the Sith. This time around, J.J. Abrams’ Force Awakens restored the Star Wars to the former glory and spirit of the original trilogy. Force Awakens earned an A CinemaScore and a 93% fresh Rotten Tomatoes score, which was better than Return of the Jedi (80%), and just under Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back (both 94%). But even more telling about why moviegoers kept coming back: PostTrak reports that of those polled, 91% said that Force Awakens met or beat their expectations with 97% saying that they would definitely or probably recommend the film to other people.

Before Force Awakens even opened, online movie ticket websites were crashing. Advance ticket sales reached an estimated $100M before the Star Wars scroll flashed on the screen. So, it came as no surprise to hear that Force Awakens was the fastest title ever to cross $100M in just 21 hours.

When does Force Awakens finally slow down? Not for a while. Industry projections believe Episode VII will start losing theaters closer to the MLK holiday; that that frame’s opener Ride Along 2 will finally seize No. 1 away from Force Awakens with a four-day estimated take of $50M-plus.

UltimateMarvel wrote:The force is too strong. It can not be stopped.

Rusty Cunt wrote:

UltimateMarvel wrote:The force is too strong. It can not be stopped.

Good. Fuck Avatar. I am still one of the fortunate few that has never seen it, and has no intention to either.

WyldeMan wrote:

Rusty Cunt wrote:

UltimateMarvel wrote:The force is too strong. It can not be stopped.

Good. Fuck Avatar. I am still one of the fortunate few that has never seen it, and has no intention to either.

If you saw Dances with Wolves you already saw Avatar done much better.

Remember the small little orange fellow from "Star Wars: The Force Awakens"? It had really big glasses(?) that helped it see who people really were. I'm also led to believe it had a crush/relationship with Chewbacca, which is... something. Anyways, that character, Maz, originally had some scene that were in The Force Awakens (which were removed) where she was fighting Storm Troopers. This should do nothing but add more fuel to the fanboy speculation that Maz was more than just a bar-owner, and was truthfully a super secret Jedi. The scenes in question are now deleted scenes but featured the little orange alien fending off troopers. It was removed from the overall film because it didn't exactly add anything to the story in terms of development or story progression. But that was not the only scene to be removed, and the VFX supervisors for TFA were interviewed by Collider about that, and much, much more.

"There was a particular part of a scene that never made it, where they go underneath the castle and they’re going into the underground passageways, and stormtroopers are coming down the stairs and Maz uses her powers to collapse the ceiling. From my point of view, that worked absolutely brilliantly because you had all the main actors running up and then Maz does her bit and then the whole ceiling collapses in front of them, but that never made it. That was a shot I was quite proud of, actually, it worked really, really well."

Alright, if a character in the Star Wars universe has the ability to collapse a ceiling at will, there's no way they aren't a force user/Jedi. Maz had quite an ambiguous backstory in the few scenes she shared with the other characters, with her even having in her possession Luke Skywalker's lightsaber, and Han Solo even commenting "Where'd you get that?" Of course, to leave some things to our imagination, Maz simply responded: "That is another story for another time." In what situation would she, someone that, at first glance, is a lowly bar-owner, have such a powerful weapon in her basement? Like I said, a very popular theory floating around the interwebs is about how Maz may, in fact, be a Jedi, or even someone who trained with Luke Skywalker, at least, before Kylo Ren killed a bunch of people. The next thing they talked about that was cut from the film also involved some famous Star Wars vehicles, such the snow speeders for one.

"Some of the battle stuff that we did, the digital aerial dogfighting, I love some of that stuff; it was so cool. Originally, there was a bit more of that, but again, it wasn’t necessarily story-driven, it was some cool shots. There was some stuff with did with the speeder chase."

Borys Kit of The Hollywood Reporter heard from his sources that Episode VIII is being delayed so the script can be adjusted to capitalize on the unexpected popularity of the new characters. "Obviously the December date worked out very (very) well for them but I've also heard they are rewriting the script," he tweeted. "I've heard from several sources the rewrites are positive, based on audience reaction to the new characters. People loved them. So strongly. And Lucasfilm was surprised at how well they were received, according to several sources."

It would explain why principal photography on Episode VIII won't begin until next month, which is slightly behind schedule. During last month's global press day, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy told reporters that filming would start in January.

Star Wars: Episode VIII is written and directed by Rian Johnson, and will start filming in London's Pinewood Studios in the next few weeks, continuing the story of Rey, Finn, Poe, Kylo Ren, plus more legacy characters and all-new characters.

During your time walking the post-apocalyptic landscape of Fallout 4, did you ever think something was missing? Youtube user Cosmic Contrarian did, and went through a lot of effort to create it.

Part of what makes Fallout so great is the wonderful mod community, and they have outdone themselves yet again. Using a smattering of various mods, like the Jedi and Sith Force Powers mod by Ketzulo, or the Darth Vader Armor by invalidfate to name just a few, Cosmic Contrarian assembled this 20-minute clip of the ultimate showdown between Vader and Luke, though that doesn't start till around the 12:48 mark.

The first chunk of the video is where we get to see the rebels almost completely decimated by Fallout 4's version of an AT-AT,. After that we get to see just how deadly Darth Vader is, no matter what universe he is in. Make sure to check out the Youtube page to see all the mods that were used to create it, and the battle is definitely worth your time.

In this latest "Secrets of the Force Awakens" Blu-ray clip, Adam Driver and J.J. Abrams fill us in on what ultimately drove Ben Solo to turn from the light and join Snoke as Kylo Ren.

Rusty Cunt wrote:Have to say ... once you remove the thrill of seeing a new Star Wars film in the theatre, there's not a lot there.

I felt like fan service being spoon-fed to me.

Rusty Cunt wrote:Also, when Chewie meets Leia again, he gives her a big hug because he obviously hasn't seen her since she and Han split.

Yet after the fight, once Chewie returns after Han has died, he walks off the ship, and he and Leia walk right passed each other without so much as a nod. And I mean right next to each other. If Chewie put his arm out he would of clotheslined her. They try to feign emotion by Leia walking straight to Rey, because girl power, yet completely ignores the real emotion that was there with both her and her recently deceased husband's oldest and dearest friend.

This film is sorely missing a subtle touch.

UltimateMarvel wrote:I felt exactly the same way. Watching it again I thought, "This ain't all that." Lightsaber fights are shit too which is what I looked forward too. If it's the same in the second movie then I'll be skipping it. Rogue One seems more interesting.

WyldeMan wrote:The first movie wasn't about Jedi or lightsaber fights cause Rey hadn't been trained by Luke yet.

WyldeMan wrote:There's a popular theory that Felicity Jones's character in Rogue One is Rey's mother given the time frame that Rogue takes place in relation to Awakens and that it was chosen as the film to bridge the gap until Rey's story continues in E8. Possibly way off base but it could be that we're going to learn more about Rey's memory of them from Awakens.

UltimateMarvel wrote:
I felt exactly the same way. Watching it again I thought, "This ain't all that." Lightsaber fights are shit too which is what I looked forward too. If it's the same in the second movie then I'll be skipping it. Rogue One seems more interesting.

J.J. Abrams has already said he knows who Rey's parents are, but he of course isn't naming names.

And speaking at the Tribeca Film Festival on Friday, the Force Awakens director seemed to reveal who her parents aren't.

During the audience Q&A after the talk between Abrams and Chris Rock concluded, a young fan asked the question on many Star Wars fans' minds: Who are Rey's parents?

At first Abrams jokingly told the kid to get out. But then he may have dropped a big clue about the identity of Daisy Ridley's character's mom and dad: "Rey's parents are not in Episode VII. So I can't possibly say in this moment who they are. But I will say it is something that Rey thinks about, too."

That information seems to contradict popular speculation that Rey could be Luke's daughter or the daughter of Luke's sister Leia, and possibly Han Solo, making her Kylo Ren's sister.

"Obviously it’s not for me to talk about in this moment because this is [Episode VIII director] Rian [Johnson]’s story to continue now," Abrams continued. "The last thing I’m going to do is reveal something that he would be upset about. I want to make sure that Rian gets the courtesy that he showed me."

But with many more Star Wars films in the pipeline, including Episode VIII, perhaps in time fans, and Rey, will find out more about her family.

After the Q&A, though, Abrams clarified his comments to Entertainment Weekly. “What I meant was that she doesn’t discover them in Episode VII. Not that they may not already be in her world,” Abrams said.

Still, Abrams shared other Force Awakens insights during his career-spanning discussion with Rock, with the final minutes devoted to Abrams' time in a galaxy far, far away.

Abrams discussed his decision to keep Mark Hamill's Luke Skywalker out of the film until the very end, saying "We knew that getting to Luke was the whole story."

But he revealed that Hamill was reluctant to the concept worried it would seem "silly" or "like a joke that he's standing there at the end."

Abrams was confident that wouldn't be the case.

"This whole movie—because it's all about him—this could be this great fun drumroll up to seeing this guy," he said, adding that it wasn't until he filmed the scene, seeing Hamill as Skywalker in the Jedi robes and listening to part of John Williams' Star Wars score that he realized the "ending could really work."

He also revealed that a silver lining to Harrison Ford's Millennium Falcon injury was that it gave him the opportunity to rethink and reshoot Rey and Finn's scene together in the Millennium Falcon, claiming the first time they did that, prior to Ford's injury, "It didn't work at all. They were much more contentious. I didn't direct it right. It was set up all wrong."

During the break caused by Ford's injury, Abrams said he "was able to look at everything we'd done and rethink it and rewrite quite a bit of that relationship. So when we came back to work we actually just reshot, from the ground up, those scenes, and it was an amazingly powerful thing to get these two characters to where they needed to be."

UltimateMarvel wrote:It can't be Leia because we would have picked up on it in TFA. Gotta be Luke.

WyldeMan wrote:

UltimateMarvel wrote:It can't be Leia because we would have picked up on it in TFA. Gotta be Luke.

But Luke was in Force, so he's ruled out too based on what JJ said. I think Rey's parents are new characters to the verse. Everybody expects her and Kylo to be brother and sister cause of Luke and Leia but I think they're taking a different path with the new trilogy.

After the Q&A, though, Abrams clarified his comments to Entertainment Weekly. “What I meant was that she doesn’t discover them in Episode VII. Not that they may not already be in her world,” Abrams said.

Rusty Cunt wrote:It's gotta be Luke, she just wont find out until the third film. Otherwise they're bringing in a whole new Jedi lineage, and that would be bad. Remember the prequels?

The fact Vader, Kenobi, Luke and Leia were the last of the kind made it compelling. Unless they reveal she's the daughter of an unknown Kenobi love-child, which would suck.

She can't be Ren's brother. If Han & Leia had a second kid, why would they need to separate them? There was no big bad guy looming over them.