When "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" premieres in theaters on December 18, 2015, it is almost guaranteed to be the biggest movie in America (probably the world, too). It will also dominate on all of the country's biggest screens.
All of them. Exclusively.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, for the four weeks following the release of the anticipated film, IMAX will not be screening any other movie on any of its trademark, large-format screens.
As THR notes, this sort of complete IMAX takeover, while rare, does happen on occasion — most recently committing to all three "Hobbit" films in on fell swoop a few years back.
The why of it, of course, makes perfect sense: "The Force Awakens" is perceived to be the rare, elusive, four-quadrant hit — appealing to just about every demographic box office analysts have a metric for. That's why some of the most conservative estimates for its opening total up to $1.75 billion, while others find figures as high as $3 billion totally reasonable ("Avatar" and "Titanic," the top two movies of all time, have grossed $2.7 and $2.2 billion, respectively).
There also isn't much competition for those IMAX screens in the last month of the year — the only movie to premiere on the same day is the Tina Fey and Amy Poelher-led comedy "Sisters."
Over the four weeks after its release, the currently scheduled competition consists of auteur pictures like Quentin Tarantino's "The Hateful Eight," the biopic "Snowden," another "Alvin and the Chipmunks" movie, and the "Point Break" remake — some of which are highly anticipated, but none of which are expected to be blockbusters anywhere near the size of "Star Wars."
Just about every possible condition is in place to help ensure that "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" becomes the biggest movie ever.
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