‘The Force Awakens’ exceeds expectations in Israel
Mega movie theaters report over 100,000 tickets sold in first three days for new Star Wars installment
Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center
Local ticket sales for “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” topped 100,000 during its first three days of screenings, reported Seret.co.il, Israel’s online website for movie ticket sales.
The long-awaited film opened in Israel on Thursday, a full day before the first screenings in the US, with a midnight showing at Cinema City theaters as Wednesday turned to Thursday.
“It’s unbelievable results,” said Carmen Rabinovich, who handles public relations for Seret, which is owned by YES Planet, the movie theater chain controlled by the Greidinger family, scions of the Chen Israeli movie theater company that opened its first cinema in 1931 in Haifa.
The figure, said Rabinovich, represented ticket sales for YES Planet and all Chen theaters as well as Cinema City, the other mega movie theater chain that is owned by brothers Leon and Moshe Edry and Yaakov Cohen. The brothers have also long been considered the Cinema Paradiso pair of the Israeli film industry.
Rabinovich said she didn’t have shekel figures for “Star Wars” ticket sales over the weekend.
According to Bloomberg, the long-awaited sequel telling the tale of the Skywalker clan earned the second-biggest opening in history, earning $238 million in the US and Canada, surpassing last summer’s “Jurassic World’s” $208 million.
In the US, the latest film in the light saber-laden saga broke all pre-sale records, selling more than $100 million of advance tickets, reported Bloomberg.
The Seret site didn’t reveal advance ticket figures, mostly because “Israelis don’t think ahead like that,” said Rabinovich.
The film series, which has been called “Milhemet HaKochavim” in Israel since the first 1977 film in the series, brought legions of Star Wars fans out on Thursday, many dressed as Darth Vader, Han Solo or in full-body, storm trooper costumes.
According to Cinema City, the mega theater sold 10,000 tickets and has 120 screenings planned for the first week of the film.
Around 30 private companies rented out theaters for private screenings, said Eitan Shem-Tov, whose firm, Ran Rahav, handles public relations for Cinema City.
“We’re talking about an event on an international level,” said Avi Edry, deputy CEO of Cinema City. “We’ve been preparing for it for several months, reserving about half of the best theaters for screening the film and getting ready to greet thousands of movie viewers.”
Edry said that the movie theater chain also imported additional Star Wars mannequins for their collection of movie memorabilia, on display at each Cinema City theater.
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