When the official box office numbers came through yesterday, they confirmed thatAvengers: Infinity Warhad set a new opening weekend record with $257.6 million, besting the $247.9 million record set byStar Wars: The Force Awakensin December 2015. Last night, LucasFilm president Kathleen Kennedy continued a storied tradition that spans more than 40 years, sending out a quaint congratulatory message to Marvel Studios through the officialStar WarsTwitter page. The artwork replicates not only a key moment fromThe Force Awakens, but also signals a passing of the baton, so to speak, from one massive franchise to another.
As per tradition, the message came through a custom poster, of sorts, showcasing presumably the wrapped hand of Rey (Daisy Ridley), handing off a lightsaber to the armored hand of Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.). The image is a nod to the final scene ofStar Wars: The Force Awakens, where Rey holds out the lightsaber she was given to Luke Skykwalker (Mark Hamill) on the hidden planet of Ahch-To. In this context, the lightsaber represents the all time opening weekend box office record, which is being passed fromStar Wars: The Force AwakenstoAvengers: Infinity War. Here’s whatKathleen Kennedyhad to say in her brief statement.
“From a Galaxy far, far away… to Earth’s Mightiest Heroes Congratulations on thebiggest opening weekend in history! From Kathy and everyone at LucasFilm!”
TheStar Warsfranchise as a whole is at the heart of this endearing tradition, since it started when the very firstStar Warsmovie,A New Hope, surpassedJawsas the highest-grossing movie of all time. AfterStar Warsbroke the record,Jawsdirector Steven Spielberg took out a full-page ad in Variety, congratulating his old film school pal George Lucas (they both graduated from USC together) with a heartfelt message accompanied with an amusing illustration of R2-D2 catching the massiveJawsshark with a simple fishing pole.
The tradition continued a few years later with Lucas sending Spielberg a congratulatory message whenE.T. The Extra-TerrestrialbeatA New Hope, which featured a number ofStar Warscharacters holding a party forE.T.Then in 1997, when the special edition of Lucas’A New HopesurpassedE.T., Spielberg sent another poster to Lucas, featuringE.T.placing a crown on R2-D2’s dome. But just a year later, Lucas commissioned a new poster to congratulate James Cameron for his blockbusterTitanicbeatingA New Hope, featuring several iconicStar Warscharacters tumbling overboard as the ship goes down, while Han Solo and Leia even re-create the iconicTitanicmoment at the bow of the ship between Leonardo DiCaprio’s Jack Dawson and Kate Winslet’s Rose Dewitt Butaker.
The tradition seemingly died asTitanicheld on to the all-time record for several years, followed by Cameron’sAvatar, but the tradition was renewed by Marvel Studios' Kevin Feige in 2015, who sent out a hilarious poster whenJurassic Worldtook in $208.8 million on its opening weekend, besting the three-year record set byThe Avengers($207.4 million). That poster featured Chris Pratt’s Owen Grady riding atop a T-Rex, which mysteriously holds Thor’s hammer Mjolnir, while a number of the Avengers look on. Later that year, Universal congratulatedStar Wars: The Force Awakensfor breaking its record, with a poster featuring a dinosaur placing a gold medal around the “neck” of the beloved ball droid BB-8. Take a look at the new poster, courtesy ofStar Wars Twitter, along with some of the other congratulatory messages that filmmakers and studios have sent after theirbox office records were broken, and another poster from a fan that pokes some fun atAvengers: Infinity War, which you won’t fully understand if you haven’t seen the movie yet.
