'Star Wars' propels North American box office past record $11 billion

Thanks to a major boost from Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the North American box office passed $11 billion for the first time ever Tuesday.

The Force Awakens added significantly to the final haul, earning $600.9 million to date in North America, according to estimates from Rentrak tracking service.

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But it was the last in string of 2015 box-office hits that made up the record total, which Rentrak estimates will be $11.1 billion at the year's end.

"Star Wars was huge, but it's been an amazing movie year," says Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Rentrak. "There were records broken every month of the year, starting in January with American Sniper and then Fifty Shades of Grey and so on."

The $11 billion mark beats the previous record of $10.9 billion in 2013 and was a significant increase over 2014's disappointing $10.4 billion.

A few factors:

• The opening weekend record was broken twice in 2015, starting with Jurassic World, which opened in June to $208.8 million ($652 million total). That opening was squashed in December by The Force Awakens, which opened with $248 million.
• Clint Eastwood's American Sniper set the tone for the year, posting the biggest January debut for a national release with $89.3 million ($350 million total).
• Fifty Shades of Grey posted the biggest February opening ever with $85.2 million ($166 million total).
• Furious 7 scored the biggest April opening ever with $147.2 million ($353 million total).
• Avengers: Age of Ultron kicked off summer with a $191.3 million debut in May ($459 million total), making it one of the top five opening weekends of all time.

Despite optimistic predictions going into 2015, there was some doubt that the box office record would be broken during the lean months of September and October, says Jeff Bock, box office analyst for Exhibitor Relations. Films languished financially with the notable exception of Matt Damon's The Martian, which brought in $225 million total.

"And it wasn't a foregone conclusion that Star Wars was going to be the box-office beast everyone hoped it would be," says Bock.

Bock also noted that ticket prices continued to rise in 2015, along with premiums such as IMAX screens and 3-D.

"This is the biggest box office on record, but I doubt 2015 will mark the highest admission numbers on record," says Bock. "But this proves people are willing to pay a premium price for those big blockbusters. We'll see how long that lasts."