After entering the new week, Star Wars: The Force Awakens began its weekday run, while North America welcomed Christmas week.
It's no exaggeration to say that after its North American opening weekend, Star Wars: The Force Awakens grew stronger by the day, shattering various box office records and sweeping in profits as if entering an unguarded land. The nationwide Monday single-day box office record, which had been sealed for twelve years, was broken once again.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens earned $65.24 million on Monday, surpassing the $45.67 million record set by The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in 2003, raising the bar by a wide margin.
In just four days, the film's North American box office surpassed $400 million—becoming the fastest movie in North American history to reach that milestone.
Meanwhile, Duke, Warner Bros., and Lucasfilm did not relax their efforts on The Force Awakens. A variety of related activities and promotions continued to emerge endlessly.
The record-breaking pace of The Force Awakens showed no sign of slowing, exciting both old and new fans alike. But what about the astronauts on the International Space Station—hundreds of thousands of miles from any theater—how could they watch the movie? Don't worry.
That Tuesday, a team of three astronauts successfully docked their Soyuz spacecraft with the International Space Station. Their mission went smoothly and there was a surprise waiting for them in space: Star Wars: The Force Awakens would be screened aboard the station, allowing the astronauts to enjoy a cinematic feast during their Christmas downtime.
"Watching Star Wars in space is truly an unparalleled experience—an immersive feeling that IMAX can never compare to."
The astronauts in orbit could hardly hide their excitement, and NASA shared their transmitted messages on its official instant-sharing platform.
On Tuesday, The Force Awakens grossed another $53.41 million, effortlessly setting a new record for the highest Tuesday box office in North American history.
At this point, Star Wars: The Force Awakens had already broken every possible record there was to break.
On Wednesday, North America's well-known online ticketing site Fandango released its list of the ten highest-selling films of 2014. The Force Awakens claimed the top spot, with over 60% of the site's users purchasing tickets for it—breaking multiple records in the process.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens had launched its presale campaign two months before release. On Fandango, its first-day presale numbers set a new site record, tripling the previous record held by The Avengers.
According to MovieTickets.com, the film's presale box office hit a fifteen-year high—thirteen times that of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith during the same period. IMAX theater sales were equally astonishing: 490 IMAX screens generated over $12.5 million in presale revenue, completely rewriting history, as no film before had ever surpassed $1 million in IMAX single-day presales.
That same day, The Force Awakens earned another $42.26 million in North America.
By then, the film's North American total had reached $505.42 million—breaking the $500 million mark in just six days and setting a new record for the fastest film to do so, surpassing The Avengers.
On Thursday, analysts from Oppenheimer & Co. stated that the success of Star Wars: The Force Awakens merchandise would drive the U.S. toy and film merchandise industries into their best period in a decade. They estimated that from early November to late December, Star Wars-related product sales had already reached $2 billion.
Many benefited from this massive industrial chain—retailers, toy manufacturers, and especially Duke and Lucasfilm.
Among the many toy producers of The Force Awakens, an obscure robot toy design company named SPHERO caught a huge wave, becoming one of the main contributors to that $2 billion in sales.
The company specifically produced miniature BB-8 toys for Duke and Lucasfilm.
Duke's choice of such an unknown manufacturer was deliberate. SPHERO had long specialized in remote-controlled smart spheres—making it the perfect fit for BB-8.
SPHERO's own smart balls had been selling for four years, at only fourteen units per hour. But once the smart ball became BB-8, hourly sales skyrocketed to 4,000 units—that's the power of Duke and Star Wars.
With Christmas approaching, BB-8 became the hottest holiday gift. In sales statistics released by multiple e-commerce platforms and department stores, BB-8-related merchandise ranked firmly at the top.
Especially on the Thursday before Christmas, in North America alone, BB-8 toy sales reached an astonishing $220 million.
That same day, The Force Awakens continued its steady box office performance, grossing $37.56 million and bringing its North American total to $542.98 million.
Over those five weekdays, The Force Awakens continued its rampage through overseas markets as well, with international box office revenue surpassing $500 million.
After one week of release, the film's global total reached $1.09758 billion, making it the fastest movie in world history to cross the $1 billion mark.
As Star Wars: The Force Awakens approached its second North American weekend, Warner Bros. and Lucasfilm intensified the marketing push. From print media to online social networks, a flood of new stories emerged—but this time, the spotlight shifted toward Duke himself.
Every piece of news has a shelf life, and Warner Bros. and Lucasfilm had crafted an exceptionally professional publicity strategy.
Notably, on the day before Christmas, TIME magazine released its Christmas special issue—with Duke holding hands with BB-8, both appearing together on the cover.
"As the director of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Duke Rosenberg possesses the qualities of a god—or the founder of an empire. He is exactly what the long-dormant Star Wars series needed: a superfan of Star Wars and an expert in pop culture."
Opening the issue revealed a more detailed feature article:
"Considering that fans have supported the Star Wars saga for so long—even after being disappointed by a disastrous sequel (yes, we mean Attack of the Clones—why, George, why?)—they never gave up. So, finding someone among them to direct the new installment seemed only fitting."
"Duke Rosenberg saw the very first Star Wars in 1977, when he was only seven years old. Due to family connections, he frequently visited the sets of the next two films, deeply influenced by Star Wars culture and George Lucas himself."
"You could say Duke Rosenberg is God's chosen one—blessed in every way—witnessing firsthand the birth of one of the greatest film series in history during his youth."
"At its peak, the Star Wars universe opened gateways to new worlds and visions, offering audiences the ecstatic wonder of glimpsing marvels both earthly and galactic."
"Yet, in that same universe, visual effects and anonymity began to outweigh story, character, directorial vision, and creative intelligence. The prequel trilogy's repetitive visuals were filled with apocalyptic noise—endless cycles of similar plots, explosions, escapes, and predictably tortured rescues—leaving audiences numb and detached."
"But Duke Rosenberg, the director shaped by both Star Wars and George Lucas, saved it all. His wisdom in The Force Awakens—and more importantly, his spirit—was in stripping away unnecessary chaos and restoring the saga to its origins. Within the film's vast and complex universe, that was no small feat."
"Just like in the real world, the intergalactic war continues, and now the roles of Luke, Leia, and Han Solo are carried by a new trio of charismatic and talented actors carefully chosen by Duke—Oscar Isaac, Daniel Wu, and Daisy Ridley taking over the mantle. Duke also made them appear to possess deeper and more multidimensional human qualities."
"At the same time, Duke Rosenberg also defined the core of the new trilogy—that the new generation's Luke Skywalker is a young woman, Rey, who lives tenaciously in the desert. Played by Daisy Ridley, she possesses Luke's skill set and shares his love for natural fabrics."
"Star Wars: The Force Awakens presents a complex future world. Duke Rosenberg crafted the film with exceptional brilliance. This film wasn't made just for die-hard Star Wars fans—it was made for everyone!"
There's no doubt that the Star Wars series is the strongest fan-driven franchise in history. Over the past week, nearly every Star Wars fan flocked to theaters, contributing massive box office numbers while at the same time somewhat consuming part of their enthusiasm.
In subsequent screenings, Star Wars: The Force Awakens had to face such a situation—the passion of Star Wars fans was gradually declining, and how high the final box office could climb depended greatly on the number of casual moviegoers.
In North America, Star Wars had long become a social and cultural phenomenon, but there were always areas it couldn't fully reach. Compared to North America, overseas box office results were more affected by general audiences. Warner Bros. and Lucasfilm devised post-release marketing strategies, one of which was to use the film's exceptional ratings and audience word of mouth to influence the choices of casual viewers.
In its first week, Star Wars: The Force Awakens had already grossed nearly $1.1 billion worldwide. The subsequent developments proved that whether it was the initial debate Duke sparked around Rey or the post-release promotional campaigns by Warner Bros. and Lucasfilm, both had an enormous impact.
As the new weekend curtain rose, Star Wars: The Force Awakens welcomed not only its second weekend but also the Christmas holiday season.
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