The fact that Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens was and still is a popular movie isn’t exactly a surprise, but how popular was it exactly?

If you’re one to judge this type of entertainment by the amount of money earned, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens has earned R49 million in South African cinemas during its run on the big screen.

While the R49 million is an official stat from Disney (owner of all things Star Wars), unofficial source Box Office Mojo tells us that this money was earned from December 16th 2015 to February 21st 2016, a total of ten weeks in cinemas.

And that is probably due to its strong opening “weekend” where it made almost R17 million. Hell, it made almost R5 million in its opening day alone.

These earnings have, well, earned, The Force Awakens the title of the third biggest movie in the country. Sitting at the top is Fast & Furious 7 with Avatar in second.

All these big numbers aren’t even taking into account how the film sold on DVD and Blu-ray. The numbers of physical sales aren’t in yet, so we’ll update the story when we have them.

We have to wonder if the fact that the movie was pirated so soon after release had any impact on sales. Even with the closure of Kickass Torrents, we have to imagine that many people’s personal copy of the movie was acquired under the table.

This news comes to use from the Disney Showcase 2016 which also announced the fact that more Marvel movies and TV shows will be heading to e.tv later this year. We have more Star Wars news to report from the event, so stay tuned.

[Image – diablo2003 on Deviantart