William Hill Backs Star Wars 7 to Top Box Office Earnings in 2015

Star Wars 7 tipped to be highest grossing movie of 2015 by William Hill.

UK’s longest running sports betting operator William Hill has predicted a major success for the Star Wars: Episode 7 – The Force Awakens movie at the box office.

The latest episode of the Star Wars franchise directed by JJ Abrams and created by the Disney Studios has been made 1/6 favourite to become the highest grossing film of year 2015 as the bookmaker seems to believe legions of Star Wars fans will flock to the cinemas across the globe to witness the first film since the Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm back in 2012.

Marvel’s Avengers Age of Ultron and Jurassic World follow at 4/1 and 8/1 respectively, with James Bond Spectre coming in fourth at 10/1.

William Hill believes that Hollywood movie industry will recover from what was a very slow year, with said blockbusters all tipped to make a splash.

The Big Six studios – Disney, Sony, Warner Bros, Universal, Fox and Paramount – have already started aggressive marketing campaigns for their 2015 blockbusters, hoping to make amends for the failures of previous year.

Hollywood Suffers Major Hit in 2014

The United States movie industry took quite a hit in 2014, having seen a 15 per cent decline in box office earnings, mostly due to what was referred to as the worst summer in the last decade.

A number of blockbuster movies utterly failed to live up to the billing, with Sylvester Stalone’s Expendables 3 proving one of the biggest flops, having generated mere $30 million with $90 million invested in it.

iFrankenstein had a budget of $80 million yet it generated just $20 million at the box office, while Sin Sity: A Dame to Kill For produced less than 25 per cent return on investment.

As a result, a number of leading studios announced losses of more than $100 million, while one of the Hollywood icons Steven Spielberg suggested that the steady growth of the US movie industry was over.

The Big Six studios hope to prove the doubters wrong with a strong performance in 2015, but they obviously have even more riding on their latest blockbusters taking into account last year’s failures.