Star Wars: The Force Awakens Finishes Second at Daily Box Office for First Time Since Opening

For the first time since December 18, 2015 (or really, even since December 17's previews, which by far outdid any of the full day's competition), Star Wars: The Force Awakens was not the top earner in a single day of domestic box office on Friday. January 8, 2016, the opening day of Fox's awards hopeful The Revenant, starring Leonardo DiCaprio (and a bear), pulled in $14.4 million, outstripping Force's $10.76 million on the day.

Revenant had the benefit of limited release and awards season buzz behind its explosive first day, but tracking still puts The Force Awakens ahead for the weekend. It should finish in first place for the fourth straight weekend, but by a much more narrow margin than the last three, adding around $41 million (well below Avatar's fourth weekend record of 50.3 million dollars) to its record-holding domestic total. Revenant is expected to come in second with around $36.5 million.

With a one loss, 22 win average so far in daily box office, Star Wars, and thus Lucasfilm/Disney obviously has much more to be smiling about. This weekend will see the movie cross $800 million in domestic box office, hitting that total in 24 days, and the first film in history to cross that mark (not accounting for inflation, of course).

Star Wars: The Force Awakens will also no longer be the only film allowed in U.S. IMAX theaters after this weekend, but expect it to remain in many, if not most, for the next few weeks, still. The next major IMAX release is The Finest Hours, produced and distributed by - yup - Disney, keeping them in full control of the large format screens, coming January 29, 2016. The following release is Fox's Deadpool on February 12, which, being a Marvel property, Disney gets a (much smaller, but still a) cut of, as well.