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Star Wars: The Force Awakens

'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' sails to $88.3M weekend, new records

Bryan Alexander
USA TODAY
The good ol' Millennium Falcon in 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens.'

Star Wars: The Force Awakens started 2016 right where it left off in 2015 —  with total box office domination.

The seventh Star Wars cruised to a lopsided victory for New Year's weekend with $88.3 million, according to studio estimates, setting new records every day as it soared to $740 million total after just 17 days of release.

Between Christmas and New Year's, The Force Awakens passed North American totals of blockbusters including Titanic  ($658.7 million), The Avengers ($623.4 million) and Jurassic World ($652.3 million). Next stop: overtaking current record holder Avatar ($760.5 million).

"The Force Awakens is picking off records one at a time as it explodes up the box office chart," says Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Rentrak. "It just barely missed setting the North American record this weekend by catching (up to) Avatar. It could do that tomorrow. The speed with which it has set all these records is unprecedented."

Josh Gad pays 'Frozen' respect to 'Star Wars' box office dominance

The J.J. Abrams-directed film continued to set records at the global box office as it passed the $1.5 billion mark, making it the No. 6 movie of all time internationally (passing Avengers: Age of Ultron at $1.4 billion).

With $1.510 billion total, The Force Awakens is poised to pass Furious 7 ($1.515 billion) and Avengers ($1.519 billion).  Avatar sits at the top of the global list with $2.8 billion.

Brad (Will Ferrell, left) and Dusty (Mark Wahlberg) have a heart-to-heart in 'Daddy's Home.'

Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg's Christmas comedy Daddy's Home managed a powerful second-place run, taking $29 million for the weekend with an impressive total of $93.7 million.

"Surprisingly, Daddy's Home is going to be one of the biggest hits of Will Ferrell's career. No one expected that," says Jeff Bock, box office analyst for Exhibitor Relations. "It has turned into the big family comedy of the season."

Quentin Tarantino's Western The Hateful Eight took third place with $16.2 million ($29.6 million total). The awards contender Western expanded nationally to 2,474 theaters from 100 locations.

Amy Poehler and Tina Fey's comedy Sisters took fourth with $12.6 million ($61.7 million total). Family film Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip pulled into fifth with $11.8 million ($67.4 million total).

Overall, the New Year’s weekend was so strong that it ran neck-and-neck with the record of $220 million set in 2010 when Avatar and Sherlock Holmes dominated.

The victor will be decided when final numbers are calculated Monday.

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