NORTH AMERICA: Weekend Estimates: 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' Now the Second Highest Grossing Film of All-Time After $88.3M Third Weekend; 'Daddy’s Home' #2 with a Strong $29.0M; 'The Hateful Eight' #3 with a Modest $16.2M

Sunday Update:

Disney's Star Wars: The Force Awakens continued to lead the box office with ease this weekend with an estimated third weekend take of $88.3 million. That represented the largest third weekend gross of all-time, as The Force Awakens topped the previous $68.49 million record of Avatar by $19.81 million and 29 percent. Thanks in part to continued strong word of mouth and to the New Year's holiday, The Force Awakens was down a solid 41 percent from last weekend.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens has grossed a massive $740.27 million in 17 days of release. That already makes the film the second highest grossing film of all-time unadjusted domestically, as the film zoomed past the respective $658.67 million and $652.27 million lifetime grosses of Titanic and Jurassic World. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is now just $20.24 million away from surpassing the $760.51 million lifetime gross of Avatar to become the highest grossing film of all-time domestically. When adjusting for ticket price inflation, The Force Awakens is currently in 18th place on the all-time adjusted list. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is currently running 48 percent ahead of the $500.37 million 17-day take of Jurassic World and 110 percent ahead of the $352.11 million 17-day take of Avatar.

IMAX grosses were responsible for an estimated $13.2 million of the overall weekend take for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. To date, The Force Awakens has grossed $98.2 million in IMAX domestically, which represents 13.3 percent on the film's total domestic gross.

Paramount's Daddy's Home continued to exceed expectations this weekend with an estimated second place take of $29.0 million. The PG-13 rated comedy starring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg was down just 25 percent from last weekend's stronger than expected start. Daddy's Home has been the clear alternative choice to The Force Awakens for moviegoers over the holidays and has grossed $93.68 million in just ten days. That places the film an impressive 34 percent ahead of the $69.95 million ten-day take of 2010's The Other Guys (which fell 51 percent in its second weekend to gross $17.41 million).

The Weinstein Company's The Hateful Eight took third place with an estimated $16.24 million. On the heels of last weekend's strong roadshow start, the Quentin Tarantino directed western had a much more modest performance this weekend upon expanding into wide release. The Hateful Eight debuted below expectations and an underwhelming 46 percent below the $30.12 million 2012's Django Unchained earned in its first weekend of release. It is possible that this weekend's performance for The Hateful Eight was deflated a bit from the film's fairly last minute release date change, but at the same time, the film will soon be facing very new direct competition from Fox's The Revenant when that film expands into wide release this coming Friday. The Hateful Eight has grossed $29.58 million through ten days of release (five of which have been in wide release). The film received a modest B rating on CinemaScore, which suggests that the film isn't going over as well with moviegoers to the same extent that Tarantino's films normally do.

Universal's Sisters and Fox's Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Roadchip occupied fourth and fifth place this weekend with respective estimated takes of $12.58 million and $11.80 million. Both films held up very nicely from last weekend, as Sisters was down 11 percent and The Road Chip was down 10 percent. Respective 17-day grosses stand at $67.38 million for The Road Chip and at $61.70 million for Sisters. That already places total gross to opening weekend ratios at 4.72 to 1 for Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip and at 4.43 to 1 for Sisters.

Fox's Joy and Paramount's The Big Short claimed sixth and seventh place with respective estimated grosses of $10.40 million and $9.00 million. Joy was down a solid 39 percent from last weekend, while The Big Short was down a slim 15 percent. Joy has grossed $38.72 million in ten days, while The Big Short has grossed $32.98 million in 24 days. However, given its far better hold this weekend and its upcoming expansion on Friday; The Big Short should have no problem moving past Joy before much longer.

Sony's Concussion and Warner's Point Break landed in eighth and ninth place with respective estimated takes of $8.00 million and $6.85 million. Both films held up nicely, as Concussion was down just 24 percent from last weekend, while Point Break was down 30 percent. Concussion and Point Break may have both benefited this weekend from their Christmas weekend debuts having been deflated by the direct competition from the massive second weekend performance of The Force Awakens. Respective ten day grosses stand at $25.37 million for Concussion and at $22.43 million for Point Break.

Saturday Update:

Please note that some studios remain closed for the holiday weekend and are only reporting estimates from the past week. Actuals will be reported on Monday, January 4.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens added another record to its files yesterday with $34.46 million, the best New Year's Day gross by any movie in history (besting Avatar's $25.3 million by 36 percent). That brings Force's domestic total up to $686.43 million in just 15 days, sending it past Jurassic World ($652.3 million) and Titanic ($658.7 million) to become the second highest grossing North American release of all-time.

Although the increase from Thursday to Friday was around 50 percent (compared to Avatar's 71.5 percent on the same New Year's Day Friday in 2010), matinee business could balance things out over the weekend before schools go back in session on Monday. With comparisons falling somewhere between those of Avatar and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The Force Awakens seems to be forming its own daily pattern at this point. Its third weekend haul is targeting an incredible $95 million, which would best Avatar's third weekend record $68.5 million by a very wide margin.

The ultimate stateside hurdle for Star Wars to climb, of course, is Avatar's $760.5 million lifetime gross ($749.8 million of which came before a short re-release window at the end of its run) to become the highest grossing movie in domestic history. Based on a $95 million weekend, that means Awakens should be close to $747 million total by the end of Sunday. Barring an unexpectedly strong Saturday/Sunday combination, Star Wars will claim the all-time domestic crown early-to-mid next week.

Daddy's Home claimed second place on Friday with a 27 percent drop from opening day one week prior to $11.476 million yesterday. The hit comedy has tallied an impressive $76.16 million through eight days of release, putting it 31 percent ahead of the pace of The Other Guys. BoxOffice projects a $29 million sophomore frame in repeat in second place.

Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight drew $6.43 million on Friday, its third day of wide release in which it expanded slightly again to 2,474 locations. Unfortunately, revenues since going wide on Wednesday have been below expectations and noticeably short of the numbers earned by Django Unchained and Inglorious Basterds, although that's not a surprise as those last two Tarantino films had stronger critical reviews and leading man star power to attract audiences beyond Tarantino's fan base. Hateful Eight's slow burn narrative is very likely the culprit for lowered mainstream interest in the auteur director's latest, but in it's own regard is still performing on a fairly healthy level. Increased buzz for fellow "western" The Revenant is also likely helping that film (expanding wide next week) to overshadow Hateful among casual viewers. With a current domestic total of $19.8 million in the bank, look for a weekend around $16.7 million for The Hateful Eight in third place.

Sisters took in $4.77 million yesterday as it leap-frogged recent releases to claim fourth place on New Year's Day, up nearly 3 percent from last Friday as it continues to enjoy great word of mouth among its target audience. The Poehler-Fey comedy has tallied a solid $53.9 million since opening 15 days ago. This weekend could ring up around $12.6 million.

Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip posted $4.375 million yesterday, up 20.5 percent from Christmas Day last Friday. With $59.95 million in the bank, look for a third weekend tally close to $11.9 million.

Meanwhile, The Revenant continued its excellent platform run with another $152,294 earned yesterday from the same four locations it opened in one week ago, off just 11 percent from its Christmas Day opening. Friday's per-theater average was $38,074. The strongly reviewed film has grossed $1.025 million through eight days and looks to take in around $390,000 this weekend.