Its official: Star Wars: The Force Awakensis the all-time domestic box office king. With over $760.6 million in tickets since the much anticipated continuation of the Star Warsfranchisehit theaters on December 17th, the blockbuster passed AvatarWednesday as the top grossing film in history. The film surpassed the $760.5 million James Camerons 3D epic earned duringits theatrical run. However, The Force Awakens needed just 20days to surpass thedomestic (U.S. and Canada, combined) record, while Avatarneeded 72 days toset the mark, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Disney confirmed the record in a press release, but didnot divulge the films exact box office as of Wednesday evening.
Despite cruising to the domestic record, The Force Awakenswill have a more difficult task overtaking Avatars $2.7 billion total as the highest-grossing film worldwide. J.J. Abrams movie also currently sits behind Jurassic World and Titanic, but The Force Awakens has yet to openin China; the film will arrive in the worlds second-largest movie-going market on January 9th, although as Stephen Colbert pointed out the Star Wars franchise isnt a phenomenon in that countrylike it is in other parts of the world.
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When adjusted to reflect inflation of ticket prices, however,The Force Awakens sits at Number 21 all time on the domestic list, according to Box Office Mojo. At $760 million, the film should soon pass the adjusted $777 million domestic total of 1999s Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace, yetThe Empire Strikes Back (Number 12 and $845 million, adjusted) and Return of the Jedi (Number 15 and $809 million) are still well ahead of the latest Star Wars episode.
The Force Awakens also faces near-impossible odds to topple the original Star Wars on the adjusted box office list, as that film pulled in an estimated $1.5 billion in domestic box office, good for Number Two on the all-time list. (Gone With the Wind remains Number One by a healthy $200 million margin.)