Box office
Star Wars: The Force Awakens grossed $936.7 million in the United States and Canada and $1.132 billion in other countries for a worldwide total of $2.068 billion,[3] making it the highest-grossing film of 2015[286] and the third highest-grossing film of all time.[287] Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold close to 110 million tickets in the United States and Canada.[288] The Force Awakens earned 8.6% of the total 2015 releases in the United States and Canada, second only to the 8.8% of the box office earned by Titanic in 1997.[289] It was the 24th film in cinematic history to gross $1 billion worldwide, standing as the fastest film to surpass the mark at the time, doing so in 12 days.[290] It was also the third film in history to surpass $2 billion worldwide, doing so on its 53rd day of release.[291] Deadline Hollywood calculated the film's net profit as $780.1 million, accounting for production budgets, marketing, talent participations, and other costs; box office grosses and home media revenues placed it first on their list of 2015's "Most Valuable Blockbusters".[168]
Commercial analysis
Analysts said that the box office receipts of the film, when compared to predecessors, must be adjusted for inflation, and that the first Star Wars film made more when this adjustment is made.[292] It has further been observed that each of the first three films in the series was more profitable in calculating revenue against production costs.[292]
While The Force Awakens was very successful in the United States and Canada, the same success was not witnessed in many overseas individual markets such as India, other certain parts of Asia and Latin America. This was attributed to it being "a retro film" and how overseas audiences do not have the same nostalgia or affinity for the film as those in North America.[293][294][295] The Star Wars franchise has traditionally lacked resonance with filmgoers in China, and marketing for The Force Awakens heavily focused on appealing to that market.[294][296]
Nancy Tartaglione of Deadline Hollywood argued that, if accounting for its 40/60 domestic to international split, The Force Awakens did well overseas.[295] While the film had special effects, analysts felt that it lacked the novelty factor; they also stated that its gross was stilted due to markets making way for new films sooner than was previously done.[294] Dergarabedian stated, "No matter what, [The Force Awakens] is an absolute, all-out blockbuster without peer in terms of the sheer speed at which it has crossed all of these major box-office milestones."[293] Moreover, Mike Fleming Jr. of Deadline Hollywood argued that the movie was the "most valuable movie" of the year, with "the net profit to Disney was an astounding $780.11M, and the Cash on Cash Return was twice that of any other film [released in 2016], at 2.00".[297]
United States and Canada
In the United States and Canada, The Force Awakens was released on December 18, 2015. It made a record-breaking $57 million from Thursday night previews,[b] of which IMAX screenings generated a record-breaking $5.7 million from 391 screens.[301] On its opening day, the film grossed $119.1 million, marking the biggest single- and opening-day record[302] and the first time a film has earned more than $100 million in a single day.[303] Without Thursday-night grosses, the film earned the second-largest opening-day gross[304] and a record of $247.9 million for its opening weekend.[279] The debut was 19% bigger than the previous record holders The Avengers (2012) ($207 million) and Jurassic World (2015) ($208 million).[305] The opening weekend figure included an IMAX opening-weekend record of $30.1 million (12.65%) from 391 IMAX theaters,[306][307] which nearly amounts to the $252.5 million total earned by Return of the Jedi—the second-lowest-grossing film in the series—in its original run.[308] 2D screenings accounted for 53% of the total opening gross while 3D accounted for 47%. RealD 3D comprised $78 million of the opening gross, setting a new record.[306] At that time, the film had the biggest December opening weekend, breaking the previous record held by The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012).[309] It would hold this record until it was surpassed by Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) six years later.[310] Revenues in the film's second weekend decreased by only 39.8% in the United States and Canada, earning $149.2 million, to remain in first place at the box office[311] and recording the biggest second weekend of all time.[312]
On January 2, after just 16 days of release, it became the second film (following Avatar) to gross over $700 million in the United States and Canada,[313] and on January 6 became the highest-grossing film of all time domestically, doing so in 20 days.[314] On January 9, it became the first film in cinematic history to cross $800 million domestically unadjusted for inflation.[315] On February 5, The Force Awakens became the first film to earn over $900 million, unadjusted for inflation, in the United States and Canada.[316][317] The film fell outside of the top ten for the first time in its eleventh weekend during the weekend February 26–28, 2016,[318][319] and did not achieve $1 million in ticket sales for the first time in its fourteenth weekend.[320]
Other territories
Internationally, the film was released in over 30,000 screens.[321] It opened on December 16, 2015, in 12 international markets and earned $14.1 million on its opening day, debuting at first place in all of them.[322] It expanded in an additional 42 countries on December 17, generating $58.6 million for a two-day international total of $72.7 million, reaching first place in all 44 markets.[323] It grossed a total of $129.5 million in three days after adding $56.8 million on its third day,[323] and set a new midnight record in the United Kingdom with $3.6 million.[324] It broke opening-day records in the United Kingdom ($14.4 million), Germany ($7.1 million), Australia ($6.8 million),[301] Sweden ($1.7 million), Norway ($1.1 million),[322] and in 12 other countries.[324] Other markets which generated large opening days were Spain ($3.5 million) and Japan ($3 million).[323] After the five days, The Force Awakens had a total international opening gross of $281 million from 30,000 screens, a new record for December opening[321][325] and the third-biggest international opening of all time.[326] International markets generating opening-weekend tallies of at least $10 million were the United Kingdom ($50.6 million), Germany ($27.5 million), France ($22.5 million), Australia ($19.6 million), Japan ($13.4 million), and Russia ($12.3 million). The film had the biggest opening of all time in 18 countries including the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, Russia, and Sweden.[321][327]
After five days, the film had a total worldwide opening record of $529 million from 74 territories, which was the biggest worldwide opening at that time, making it only the second time in cinematic history—after Jurassic World—that a film had opened to more than $500 million globally.[325][328] This included an IMAX opening record of $48 million.[328] Revenues from IMAX dipped slightly, generating $19 million in its second weekend, for a record total of over $70 million in 11 days.[329] IMAX generated $17.9 million from 276 IMAX theaters.[307] The film had a steeper decline in its second weekend, falling 51% to $136.9 million.[330] The film had an unsuccessful opening in India where it opened third against two local blockbusters with a mere $1.51 million.[331] As of February 2016, the highest-grossing markets outside of the United States and Canada were the United Kingdom ($180.7 million), China ($124.5 million), Germany ($109.7 million), Japan ($92.6 million), and France ($88.2 million).[332] On January 17, 2016, it passed the $1 billion mark overseas becoming the first film of Disney, the third film of 2015 and the fifth film overall to achieve this feat.[333] It topped the international box office chart for five consecutive weekends, becoming the first film since Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) to have five straight wins, before being dethroned by The Revenant in its sixth weekend.[334] In Japan, it topped the box office for six straight weekends.[334]
Critical response
Star Wars: The Force Awakens received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics.[335] On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 93% of 453 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.3/10. The website's consensus reads, "Packed with action and populated by both familiar faces and fresh blood, The Force Awakens successfully recalls the series' former glory while injecting it with renewed energy".[4] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 80 out of 100, based on 55 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[336] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale; women, and people under the ages of 25 and 18 gave it an "A+", while 98% of audiences gave it either an "A" or a "B". Audiences polled by PostTrak gave the film an 88% "definite recommend" while 96% said it met or exceeded their expectations.[337]
Robbie Collin of The Daily Telegraph said the film "sets out to shake Star Wars from its slumber, and reconnect the series with its much-pined-for past", and "it achieves this both immediately and joyously is perhaps the single greatest relief of the movie-going year."[338] Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian said that it was "both a narrative progression from the earlier three films and a shrewdly affectionate next-gen reboot", and it was "ridiculous and melodramatic and sentimental, but exciting and brimming with energy and its own kind of generosity."[339] Variety's Justin Chang wrote that the film has "sufficient style, momentum, love, and care to prove irresistible to any who have ever considered themselves fans."[340] Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times described it as "a beautiful, thrilling, joyous, surprising, and heart-thumping adventure".[341] Ann Hornaday, writing for The Washington Post, thought the film had "enough novelty to create yet another cohort of die-hard fans", and the film struck "all the right chords, emotional, and narrative, to feel both familiar and exhilaratingly new."[342] The Charlotte Observer's Lawrence Toppman said Abrams had "pulled off a delicate balancing act, paying clever homage to the past."[343] Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle gave the film his highest rating and called it "the best Star Wars sequel yet and one of the best films of 2015".[344] Frank Pallotta, reviewing the film for CNN Business, found it was the best Star Wars film since the original trilogy and that it "is bound to be a film experience long remembered by fans and non-fans alike".[345]
Tom Long of The Detroit News wrote that though some may find the film too similar to the original Star Wars, it leaves "the ungainly and unneeded clumsiness of the subsequent prequels far behind", and "the energy, humor, and simplicity of direction [has] been recaptured".[346] The Tribune-Star called it "basically the same" as the original film but "isn't that what we all wanted anyway?"[347] Stephanie Zacharek of Time wrote that Abrams had delivered "everything we expect, as opposed to those nebulous wonders we didn't know we wanted".[348] Reviewing for Forbes, Scott Mendelson cited the film's "top-tier production values and a strong sense of scale and scope", but felt it was so much "an exercise in fan service [that] it is only due to the charisma and talent of our newbies and J. J. Abrams' undeniable skill as a visual storyteller that the Mad Libs narrative doesn't outright destroy the picture."[349] Brian Merchant of Motherboard said that the film "is supposed to be all about exploring the unexplored, not rehashing the well-trod", and that "one of the most unabashedly creative enterprises of the 20th century has been rendered another largely enjoyable, but mostly forgettable Hollywood reboot."[350] RogerEbert.com's Gerardo Valero said the movie "plagiarized" A New Hope and resorted to nostalgia. He felt that it "didn't [justify] a return to the universe" from not having an original story of its own to tell in the plot, characters, and musical score, negatively comparing it to George Lucas' prequel trilogy, and that some of its climactic moments felt unearned.[351]
From Star Wars filmmakers
In an interview with journalist Charlie Rose that aired on December 24, 2015, Lucas likened his decision to sell Lucasfilm to Disney to a "divorce" and outlined the creative differences between him and the producers of The Force Awakens. Lucas described the previous Star Wars films as his "children" and criticized the "retro feel" of The Force Awakens, saying: "I worked very hard to make [my films] completely different, with different planets, with different spaceships—you know, to make it new." Lucas also likened Disney to "white slavers", which drew some criticism; he subsequently apologized.[352][353] In a 2019 memoir, Disney chairman Bob Iger said that George Lucas "couldn't even hide his disappointment" towards J. J. Abrams' interpretation. According to Iger, Lucas said, "there's nothing new" after seeing the film, and that "there weren't enough visual or technical leaps forward".[354][355] Lucas preferred Rian Johnson's sequel The Last Jedi and the anthology film Rogue One (2016).[356][357]
Accolades
Several awards held their nominations before the December release of The Force Awakens, making the film ineligible for the 73rd Golden Globe Awards and some other awards ceremonies.[358] However, the film was added to the 21st Critics' Choice Awards' slate of best picture nominees after a special vote by the board of directors,[359] and the announcement of the 2015 American Film Institute Awards was delayed until after the release of The Force Awakens,[358] where it was named one of the top-ten films of 2015.[360]
At the 88th Academy Awards, The Force Awakens received nominations for Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Visual Effects.[361] The film's other nominations include four British Academy Film Awards (winning one) and a Critics' Choice Movie Award.[362][363]
Fan backlash
The release of the first film trailer for The Force Awakens in 2015 spurred a racial backlash against the casting of Boyega, a Black British actor, in such a prominent role.[364] Some social media users called for a boycott of the film, which they accused of being "anti-white"[365] and of promoting "white genocide".[366] One such account promoted the Cultural Marxism conspiracy theory.[367] The character of Rey was also criticized as a too-perfect "Mary Sue" character by a group of fans who became known as the "Fandom Menace", who focused their ire at Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, whom they accused of spoiling the film franchise by including "forced diversity" and pro-feminist politics.[368]
