It's no secret that Star Wars: The Force Awakens is going to be huge at the box office. The film has made a record breaking $50 million in pre-sold tickets and is on track to shatter a few more before it hit theatres.
The only real question is: How far can Star Wars go? Many analysts have pegged the film as a potential challenger to Jurassic World' all-time opening weekend mark of $208 million. Also, given its relatively competition-free December release window, some say it could reach the $2 billion threshold of James Cameron's Avatar.
Despite the optimistic outlook, Disney is downplaying any talk of records, saying that the unpredictable nature of the Christmas season makes it impossible to tell how the film will perform.
"There are a number of things that put this film in uncharted territory, literally uncharted territory, making it even more difficult than usual to predict what the opening weekend will be. Especially this far out from release with the bulk of our campaign ahead of us," said Walt Disney Studios Chairman Alan Horn to The Hollywood Reporter.
He said that many are likening The Force Awakens to a traditional summer blockbuster, when there is not substantial evidence that proves a film released in December can match those kinds of figures.
"People are shopping, they're traveling, they also know that their kids are going to be on vacation in a week and they're going to all go see movies together." Said Horn.
Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is the current box office champ for December with an opening weekend haul of $84 million.
According to Variety, The Force Awakens is expected to open anywhere from $170 to $220 million.
Will it meet those numbers? We'll have to wait and see.
