JJ Abrams’ space opera reboot could make studio Disney more than $1bn in profit alone, according to Morgan Stanley report

An expert box office analyst predicts new Star Wars adventure The Force Awakens will score close to $2bn worldwide, a figure beaten only by twin James Cameron epics Avatar and Titanic.

Morgan Stanley’s Benjamin Swinburne expects JJ Abrams’ film to make studio Disney around $1bn in profit, according to a detailed report seen by Deadline. Such figures would constitute an immediate return on the studio’s $4.05bn investment to buy all rights to the long-running space opera saga in October 2012.

The Force Awakens is the bookies’ runaway favourite to be 2015’s biggest film at the box office after early trailers wowed fans. However, the film could yet face competition from sci fi reboot Jurassic World, which has raced past the magic $1bn mark in the record time of just 14 days.

The new report suggests The Force Awakens will set Disney back $200m in production costs, hardly an unheard of figure for a modern blockbuster. Total costs, when marketing and the cost of producing DVDs and downloads are factored in, will come to a staggering $423m.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens opens worldwide on 18 December. Abrams’ film sees will kick off a new trilogy set to climax in 2019, with Disney also set to release several spin-off “anthology” movies focusing on characters and motifs from the original triptych of films which hit cinemas between 1977 and 1983. The first is Star Wars Anthology: Rogue One, which debuts in December 2016.



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Cameron’s 1997 film Titanic scored $2.186bn, while 2009’s Avatar made $2.788bn. The current top five of the highest-grossing movies of all time is rounded out by Fast & Furious 7, with $1.52bn, The Avengers ($1.518bn) and Avengers: Age of Ultron ($1.368bn). However, the original Star Wars film held the No 1 spot for six years between 1977 and the release of ET in 1983: it still stands as the third-highest-grossing film of all time (behind Gone With the Wind and Avatar) in charts adjusted for inflation.