The U.S. box office has hit the $11 billion mark for 2015 for the first time, thanks to a final push by “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”
Domestic box office receipts for this year crossed the milestone on Tuesday, according to Rentrak. With two days left in 2015, the final number will hit about $1.1 billion.
This year’s total will be about $200 million ahead of the previous record of $10,919,694,802 set in 2013. And it’s 7.2% ahead of the 2014 mark of $10,356,099,042, which declined 5.2% from 2013.
Disney‘s “The Force Awakens” took in $31.4 million on Monday in U.S. theaters for a domestic total of $571.4 million in only 11 days. The seventh “Star Wars” film may catch Universal’s “Jurassic World,” the top 2015 grosser at $652 million, by the end of the week.
“The Force Awakens” is already the fifth-biggest domestic grosser of all time, trailing “Avatar” at $760 million, “Titanic” at $658 million, “Jurassic World” at $652 million and “Marvel’s The Avengers” at $623 million.
Disney also had the third and fourth highest grossers this year with “Avengers: Age of Ultron” with $459 million and “Inside Out” with $356.5 million as the Pixar title became a surprise blockbuster. “Age of Ultron” is the ninth-highest domestic grosser of all time.
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“Inside Out” edged Universal’s “Furious 7,” which drove to $353 million in domestic box office. Universal also had the sixth largest grosser with “Minions” taking in $336 million.
Universal will win the box office crown with more than 21%, followed by Disney at nearly 20%.
Lionsgate’s “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2” took seventh with $265.9 million, followed by Fox’s “The Martian” at $225 million. Disney’s “Cinderella” came in ninth at $201 million followed by Sony’s “Spectre” with $196.5 million.
The top 10 films combined to gross more than $3.6 billion.
