San Francisco - Shattering box office records, the latest instalment of Star Wars has stoked US film industry hopes that theatres can thrive in the face of a growing shift to online video streaming.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens surged above estimates to post an
all-time industry-high $248m domestically plus $281m internationally for
a record global debut of $529m since opening 16 December, Disney said
on Monday.
The previous record holder wasJurassic World, which had a global launch box office tally of $524.9m.
The stellar opening weekend was great news for North American cinemas,
where box office revenues were down five percent to $10.4bn last year
while increasing barely one percent globally, according to statistics
from the Motion Picture Association of America.
"Movie theatres have a chance to reintroduce themselves to movie-goers who come for Star Wars but may not have come for a few years," said National Association of Theatre Owners spokesman Patrick Corcoran.
In the past decade, movie theatres have remade themselves with more
comfortable seats, improved sight lines, sophisticated projectors,
immersive sound systems and amenities such as dinners or drinks
delivered to seats during shows.
A powerhouse attraction such as Star Wars is a chance for upgraded theatres to show visitors what they are missing and, hopefully, win them back as regular customers.
Star Wars has a winning formula that includes legions of fans
devoted to the franchise and marketing momentum ramped up by Hollywood
entertainment titan Disney.
Many people who were children when they fell in love with early Star Wars films are now old enough to have offspring of their own and make enthusiastic family outings to the theatre.
"It's a cultural event," said Erik Davis of online reservations service Fandango, which handled a large chunk of Star Wars tickets sold in the United States and Canada.
"It's bringing a lot of people together, especially different groups of
families and friends, and people going multiple times with multiple
people."
Films with that kind of drawing prowess are rare, but Davis saw the record-breaking opening of Star Wars as
evidence that the shared experience of viewing a movie on the big
screen remains important, despite the trend toward streaming
entertainment on smaller screens.
He pointed out that in contrast to 2013, when only Iron Man 3 topped a billion dollars in global box-office receipts, that threshold has already been broken this year by Jurassic World, Furious 7 and Avengers: Age of Ultron.
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