bill: we were told it would be big but i don t know if they predicted this. the force awakens with a huge awakening for the opening weeke weekend. estimated 238 million in the first weekend. that may go higher. it is also the second biggest global debut at 517 million. the first film to post a single day gross of more than a 100 million bucks. a lot of people are paying good money to see the film. jerry willis is here. how big was it? huge. let s put it in perspective. avatar was the biggest grossing movie of all time earning over three 3 billion world wide.
their opening weekend was nothing like this. it was $85 million. bill: avatar opened and made $85 million over three days. and star wars just opened and made how much over three days? $238 million in north america. $517 worldwide. bill: avatar is second and star wars is first. on that list. on opening day. bill: and star wars quadrupled the previous record? holy cow. and people are seeing this in hd so paying more than normal. the biggest opening for a movie in december ever and it has to be the hobbit; unexpected journey and it made 87.5
we re going to find him and make every effort to get that person back. that was kerry sanders reporting. star wars: the force awakens opened to record shattering numbers, $238 million in ticket sales in the u.s., when adding in foreign ticket sales the total for this weekend s earnings jumps to over $500 million, beats jurassic world which earned $208 million earlier this year. r2d2 paid i visit to the white house to commemorate the highly anticipated opening. let s get down to business with cnbc s landon dowdy. good morning to you, landon. good monday morning to you. gas prices continue to fall, industry data shows the national average dropping four cents to $2.06 a gallon, the lowest level for regular unleaded in more than six years as oil prices know dive. crude dropped 17% this month alone. if you get a drone for christmas, you re going to have to tell uncle sam the faa is
brian stelter is taking us inside the numbers and the mania. hey there, yes. this weekend star wars definitely awakened to the biggest box office opening ever. the total at the moment looks like $238 million in ticket sales. and that s just in the united states. up until now the title of biggest opening weekend ever belonged to jurassic world. that movie came out in june from the studio of universal and it made $208 million in the u.s. on opening weekend. now, star wars is clearly blasting past that. according to disney, which is releasing the film, star wars also set new records in the uk and germany, russia, australia. it looks like it made about $279 million outside the u.s. so that s well over $500 million overall. and the film hasn t even opened in china yet. it s slated for january 9th there. this is just the opening weekend of course. so it s going to make a lot more money in the weeks to come as more and more people flock to the box office to see what all
to barely decrease, thus the production side. global demand, growth is slowing in europe and china and elsewhere. the resulting oil crash has sent a shiver through the economies of oil producers like russia and canada and others. it has slammed energy stocks, but drivers rejoice. drivers saved an average of $540 this year because of those low gas prices. that s about $10 every time a customer filled up. and consumers are spending that money, about 80% of their gas savings going directly into the economy. jake. christine romans, thank you so much. the pop culture lead now. they were lining up from here to the degaba system. star wars breaking all kinds of box office records and making mickey mouse look like a genius with his $4 billion purchase of the franchise from george lucas. star wars the force awakens already raked in an estimated $238 million at u.s. theaters, the biggest opening weekend in history. cnn senior media correspondent