Star Wars: The Force Awakens: One key takeaway from the film’s $1 billion haul

Star Wars: The Force Awakens cannot be stopped. Over the holiday weekend, the movie crossed the $1 billion box office mark thanks to a $153.5 million domestic gross this weekend and a $49.3 million Christmas day haul. Internationally, the movie made $133.3 million, and it has yet to debut in China (the movie will debut there on January 9). It took just 12 days for the movie to get to the billion dollar benchmark — the fastest in history.

TFA’s success is a testament to the storytelling and history of the franchise. But it also should be a nail in the coffin of the myth that a female superhero movie can’t be successful. Even with ultra-successful female-led franchises like The Hunger Games and Underworld, box-office juggernauts like Frozen, or even the so-bad-they’re-good Resident Evil moneymakers, there are still people who think that people won’t go see a female superhero movie. That’s part of the reason that Marvel’s first solo superhero movie, Captain Marvel, isn’t coming until 2019.

Rey (Daisy Ridley), the protagonist of TFA, can move objects with her mind, hold her own with lightsaber battles, and can fly spaceships. She’s pretty much a superhero, though she isn’t technically labeled as one. And this female superhero is the main character — the movie’s secondary protagonists are men of color — in one of the most successful movies in history.