Coming Soon to Theatres–The Force Awakens
According to history.com, on May 25, 1997, the original Star Wars movie was released. George Lucas is the creator of the film series. The new edition to the Star Wars saga, The Force Awakens, will be released in theatres on December 18, 2015. The director is J.J. Abrams, a famous director, writer, and producer from New York City.
The original movie released in 42 theatres across the country, resulted in over three million dollars in sales after the first week. And by the end of the summer, over 100 million dollars was raked in.
Star Wars depicts the adventures of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Anakin Skywalker in an American epic space opera.
According to cinemablend.com, The Force Awakens takes place 30 years after the Battle of Endor and the events portrayed in Return of the Jedi, which was released in 1983. This film earned over 572 million dollars worldwide.
According to fortune.com, the upcoming Star Wars movie is expected to make over 2 billion dollars, with China expected to account for one fifth of all the revenues.
Phelan Purnell, a senior at Arrowhead said, “I’m so excited for the new Star Wars movie because it’s been so long since a new Star Wars has come out so it’s about time. Me and my dad already preordered tickets for the premiere and I don’t know I’m just really excited to see the new one.”
On fortune.com, they anticipate the upcoming flick to bring in $650 million in the U.S. alone, and a total of $2 billion globally, which would make it the highest grossing Star Wars movie.
Paul Dergarabedian, a senior analyst working at the box-office research firm Rentrak said to cinemablend.com, “There’s never been an opening weekend over $100 million in December. If any movie can break it in December, it would be The Force Awakens.”
The production of the film took a little under 6 months, which is longer than Disney anticipated, but they will still be releasing the movie on the original date set.
One of the new main characters in The Force Awakens is Finn. He is played by John Boyega. During the Star Wars Celebration panel, Boyea says the character begins the story finding himself in incredible danger. This winds up changing his life completely, and “launches him into the Star Wars universe in a unique way.” They also introduce a main female character, Rey. She is played by Daisy Ridley. She described her character at Star Wars Celebration to the audience as a scavenger who lives in a ship graveyard, and as being self-sufficient and solitary. The new antagonist or “villain” is Kylo Ren. He is played by Adam Driver. Driver knows that he has big shoes to fill, since he is following Darth Vader, who is known as one of the greatest cinematic villains of all time.
Disney is also bringing back original characters such as Han Solo, Princess Leia and even Chewbacca, Solo’s trusty side kick.
Mia Rocco, a senior at Arrowhead said, “I have never watched any Star Wars movies, but I saw the trailer and it looks like it will be a good movie. I might see it, even without seeing the other movies.”