I think we’ve reached the peak of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" teases. Earlier this week, J.J. Abrams stopped by "Jimmy Kimmel Live" where the director revealed the first spoken word in the movie. In case you’re wondering, it’s: "This." Does that make you more excited?
Meanwhile, in slightly more substantive news, Stitch Kingdom reports that the MPAA has stamped ‘Force Awakens’ with a PG-13 rating for "sci-fi action violence." It’s only the second time a film in the franchise has earned the rating, with the first being "Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge Of The Sith." But perhaps the biggest issue the rating raises is how it might (or likely, might not) affect the box office haul for ‘The Force Awakens.’
Right now, prognosticators are busy crunching the numbers, with some predicting an opening weekend that could reach $300 million domestically. But there’s a few things to consider. Currently, the all-time record holder belongs to "Jurassic World" which nabbed $208 million on its first weekend. Moreover, no December film has opened to over $85 million, a record currently held by "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey."
"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," Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn told THR. "It’s natural for people to want to view this and compare this to a summer blockbuster, but films in December don’t have the same historical release patterns as summer films….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."
In short, let’s not get Death Star sized expectations because a lot of factors are at play, and it’s also worth considering that the greatest asset ‘The Force Awakens’ might have is the ability to leg it out in cinemas for weeks and months into 2016.
Besides opening day box office, Disney and Lucasfilm are trying to keep a lid on plot details of the movie. It was just the other day that Mark Hamill tweeted a possible spoiler, but now he’s already sort of halfway taking it back. "Sorry to spoil your ‘spoilers’, but the Press widely reported my return to Skellig w/ @rianjohnson for SW shoot. My lips remain sealed. #shh" he posted on Twitter.
"Star Wars: The Force Awakens" lands on December 18th. Check out a new image above via Empire and a rom-com recut of the trailer and more details on the latest charity fundraising campaign for the movie below.