Christmas comes early for Disney with $21 million Star Wars: The Last Jedi opening

Meanwhile, it has stormed onto the biggest box office weekends of all time list

Star Wars: The Last Jedi has set a new box office high for 2017 with a $21m opening.

Weekend box office was set alight over the four days beginning last Thursday to the tune of $26.49m with $21m alone being contributed by the #1 movie. Weekend-on-weekend the box office surged 247%. While the #1 movie had the best opening of the year, it wasn’t officially the best weekend of 2017. That belongs to the weekend ending Jan 1 which saw a weekend gross of $28.37 with Rogue One, Sing and Moana all close to $4m or better in the same week.

The weekend box office soared past $20m four other times this year – January 8 (Sing was #1), January 15 (Sing was still #1), March 26 (Beauty And The Beast was #1) and July 9 (Spider-Man: Homecoming was #1).

The Walt Disney Co opened this on an impressive 970 screens with a screen average of $21,626. That was easily the best average of the year, surpassing the $18,619 earned by Beauty And The Beast in its first week. The Last Jedi has also had the biggest opening weekend of the year, improving on the opening of Beauty And The Beast back in March – $13.14m.

As far as recent Star Wars movies go, this didn’t set a new record though:

2015: Star Wars: The Force Awakens $27.54m 941 screens at an average of $28,964
2016: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story $14.75m 932 screens at an average of $15,834

Star Wars Episode VIII meanwhile has stormed onto the biggest box office weekends of all time list in Australia where it sits at #2 behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Top 10 opening weekends ever: Australia

1. $27.25m Star Wars: The Force Awakens
2. $20.97m Star Wars: The Last Jedi
3. $18.36m Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2
4. $16.10m Twilight Saga: The New Moon
5. $16.07m Jurassic World
6. $15.70m Avengers: Age Of Ultron
7. $15.29m Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 1
8. $15.10m The Dark Knight Rises
9. $14.95m Deadpool
10. $14.75m Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Box Office Report

#2 Ferdinand $1.68m

The animated kids comedy-drama did well to open this strongly up against the second-biggest opening of all time. Ferdinand managed to find its way onto 290 screens with a screen average of $5,803.

#3 Wonder $1.12m

The third weekend of the Julia Roberts film dropped from 309 screens to 290 with earnings down 39%. Total box office to-date is $8.23m.

#4 Daddy’s Home #2 $915,000

Fourth weekend in release with the film on 285 screens and a total so far of $10.62m.

#5 Justice League $402,000

After five weeks the super heroes have grossed $19.16m.

To Top