Monday Report: 'Star Wars' Has Record-Breaking Monday Following Strong Hold

     Usually, I only publish forecasts, Thursday/Friday reports, and weekend reports, but the historic grosses that came in yesterday are not to go unnoticed. As you may have guessed, this article will mostly center around 'Star Wars', which had a record-breaking $248 million weekend and followed it up with a very strong performance on Monday.
     'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' took in a record $40.1 million yesterday, beating 'Spider-Man 2' for the biggest Monday gross ever. It is also much higher than the $25.3 million take of 'Jurassic World' on its first Monday. Its performance was down a very solid 33.8%, which is way stronger than 'Marvel's The Avengers' (-66.9%/$18.9m) and 'Jurassic World' (-55.7%/$25.3m). However, those films opened in the summer while 'Star Wars' has the advantage of a mid-December release. Still, its $288.1 million total is nothing to be ashamed about, breaking the record for the fastest film to gross $250 million (4 days compared to 'Jurassic World''s 5 days). Look for it to pass $300 million and $350 million in record time throughout the week, and should be on pace for a very strong second outing.
     In a distant second place, 'Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip' claimed second place with $2.95 million, down 33.4%. The $90-million family comedy from Fox has so far taken in a solid total of $17.2 million, which lags its predecessor by 33.8%. It should continue to hold up well throughout the week and going into its second weekend.
     'Sisters' placed in third on Monday, grossing $2.5 million and declining 38.5%. Solid reviews and word-of-mouth as well as the holiday season should help 'Sisters' maintain steady grosses going forward, as the $30-million comedy has so far made $16.5 million, which is 11.3% behind the pace of 'Baby Mama'.
     Fourth place belonged to 'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2', which earned $1.2 million. That is down only 34.9% from Sunday's performance, representing one of the film's more respectable holds. The $160-million action film has made a solid-but-underwhelming $255.7 million in 32 days.
     On its 27th day, Pixar's $200-million kid pic 'The Good Dinosaur' fell 21.4% for a $1.1 million gross. Although the holiday season is stabilizing its holding power, 'Good Dinosaur' still hasn't cracked the $100 million mark with just $97.8 million. It will accomplish that goal either tomorrow or the following day.