The Force Awakens has set a new mark by crushing the previous Christmas day sales record as fans continue to hit theaters to see the new J.J. Abrams movie. The latest movie in the next Star Wars trilogy has already set a number of records, and this new Christmas day sales record is just one more under its belt.
One could argue that the timing of the movie, and what day Christmas fell on this year, certainly helped to push it way over the previous record set back in 2009 by Sherlock Holmes. When you have a such large movie being released, and with Christmas falling on a Friday, you might begin see how The Force Awakens was able to easily take down the previous champion for the Christmas day sales record.
However, I think it was destined to overcome Sherlock Holmes no matter what day Christmas fell on this year. Star Wars fans are like no other, the franchise is like no other, and I think in the end it was going to become the number one Christmas movie based on sales regardless of what day Christmas fell on. You simply can’t compare the cult following of Star Wars to that of Sherlock Holmes, there is no comparison.
The following are the top grossing movies for Christmas day.
Christmas Day Sales Records
| RANK | MOVIE | SALES | YEAR |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Star Wars: The Force Awakens | $49.3 | 2015 |
| 2 | Sherlock Holmes | $24.6 | 2009 |
| 3 | Avatar | $23.1 | 2009 |
| 4 | Meet the Fockers | $19.5 | 2004 |
| 5 | Les Miserables | $18.1 | 2012 |
| 6 | Daddy’s Home | $15.7 | 2015 |
| 7 | Unbroken | $15.4 | 2014 |
| 8 | Into the Woods | $15.1 | 2014 |
| 9 | Django Unchained | $15.0 | 2012 |
| 10 | Little Fockers | $14.5 | 2010 |
The Force Awakens pulled in roughly $49.3 million, which more than doubles that of Sherlock Holmes at $24.6 million. When you then begin to move further down the list of the top Christmas day movies you will truly begin to see how big it really was compared to previous record holders.
Star Wars was certainly a huge part of the 2015 holiday season as there was what seemed like an endless amount of Star Wars themed products at every corner we turned. There was cereal, fruit, creamers, clothing, toys, car commercials, and the list goes on and on. The Force Awakens was put onto, and into, thousands and thousands of products.
Here is just one example of a Fiat car commercial featuring elements from The Force Awakens that seemed to surround us during this year’s holiday season. We were engulfed by Star Wars in the products we purchased, the TV we watched, the places we shopped, and so it was hard to not know about The Force Awakens. I can’t think of another movie that had such an enormous marketing push, or effort, and it seems to certainly be paying off.
ARVE Error: Mode: lazyload not available (ARVE Pro not active?), switching to normal modeSo one more record in the books for J.J. Abrams, and one more mark for what is turning out to be the biggest movie we have seen released in decades, The Force Awakens.
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