With various box office analysts suggesting that December’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens could cross the $2 billion mark at the worldwide box office, Disney’s CEO Bob Iger has tried to play down expectations for the first chapter of the studio’s Sequel Trilogy during a conference call with investors.
“On the Star Wars front, we know there is just incredible interest in this film,” said Iger (via EW). “We put two teaser trailers out, and the response has just been enormous. Anything that moves gets a lot of attention, and the anticipation is obviously huge. We’ve seen some examples already of Star Wars product going on the marketplace on the consumer products front, including in markets like China, that are very, very encouraging. That said, as enthusiastic as we are for what we know of the film, we have not seen a Star Wars film — an original one — since 2005. And there are markets around the world that are less familiar with Star Wars than, say, the United States, for instance.”
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“While the [Star Wars] enthusiasm is, I think, rather apparent, we just want to be careful that the world doesn’t get ahead of us too much in terms of the estimates, and we’ve seen them as well,” he continued. “We’re making, at this point, no estimates whatsoever in terms of what we believe the film will do. We know we have probably the most valuable film franchise that ever existed. We know we have the ability as a company to leverage it in very compelling ways, whether it’s Disney Infinity, whether it’s at the parks, whether it’s on the consumer products front or TV front. We fully expect the success of this film will reverberate throughout the company, not only in 2016 but in the years beyond, because we obviously have a rich slate of Star Wars films coming.”
What’s your box office prediction for Star Wars: The Force Awakens? Will it overtake Jurassic World and Titanic, and could it even put up a challenge to Avatar? Let us know in the comments below…
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Star Wars: The Force Awakens is set for release on December 18th and sees J.J. Abrams directing returning stars Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Harrison Ford (Han Solo), Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia), Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Kenny Baker (R2-D2) and Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), in addition to Adam Driver (Girls), Oscar Isaac (A Most Violent Year), Andy Serkis (Avengers: Age of Ultron), Domhnall Gleeson (Ex Machina), John Boyega (Attack the Block), Daisy Ridley (Silent Witness), Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones), Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave), Ken Leung (Lost), Miltos Yerolemou (Game of Thrones), Max von Sydow (The Exorcist), Jessica Henwick (Spirit Warriors), Christina Chong (24: Live Another Day), Simon Pegg (Star Trek) and newcomers Crystal Clarke and Pip Andersen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng&v=8k_v0cVxqEY
Originally published August 5, 2015. Updated March 1, 2020.
