7TH UPDATE, MONDAY AM:
Disney CEO Bob Iger proclaimed this morning that
Star Wars: The Force Awakens is “Bigger than big.” Something of an understatement, Iger made the comment in an interview on
Bloomberg GO with Stephanie Ruhle and David Westin, during which he said
the final global number for opening weekend “will be in the neighborhood of $528M.” That would make it the No. 1 worldwide bow of all time, besting the $524.9M that Jurassic World posted this summer. The final confirmed figures will come in later today, but Iger put domestic in the “$247M range.” However,
industry estimates this morning are running from $248.5M-$250.3M which would lift the global cume even higher. Sunday’s international projection was $279M which Iger said would grow in the actuals. “It’s bigger than we thought it would be yesterday.” He also noted that China has yet to open. As we’ve noted, that’s significant because China was worth nearly $100M of
JW‘s take in June. And, Disney has been pulling out the stops to prime the Middle Kingdom for the return of the Jedis in January.