Last week, I was planning to write about why “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” was going to be a disappointment both financially and in quality. This was going to be a big, sweeping article, and when “Star Wars” was going to disappoint, I would be able to say, “Go look at my column! I called it.”

As I planned this column, things started to change. The movie premiered, and word was getting out that this film was one of the best blockbusters of the last few decades. I thought, OK, maybe the movie will live up to expectations, but there’s no way it can break all the box office records people think it will. I figured it would do great, but no movie has ever opened to more than $90 million in December. There are too many distractions, such as shopping, travel and football.

As I thought about this, I figured I would get in on the hype and buy some tickets. It was Tuesday, and I was buying tickets for Saturday night. Well, I tried to, that is. I could not get two seats together, and I had to settle for Saturday at 3:15. This is when I fully understood that there was no chance this movie would disappoint. I was no longer wondering if it could break a record — I was just wondering by how much it would destroy the old ones.

Coming into Friday, I had the film grossing around $220 million for the weekend. That was as big as I could realistically imagine a movie doing. Then, it made $120 million on Friday, absolutely crushing the previous record for highest day ever at $90 million for “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.” To put it in context how large that is, Box Office Mojo’s Monday numbers had “Star Wars” as the seventh highest grossing movie of 2015, beating films such as “The Martian,” “Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation” and “Spectre.”

Eventually, the film crushed nearly all records and grossed $247 million domestically for the three days, a number I did not even think was possible. As someone who saw the film, though, I can say I know absolutely why it happened.

“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” is not the best movie ever by any stretch of the imagination, but it satisfies every single requirement of what a film should have. It is funny, it is sad, it is action-packed, it is thought-provoking, it is visually impressive, or much more simply put, it is a true and true “Star Wars” movie.

I must admit, I am not a huge “Star Wars” fan, but as a fan of film, movies like these remind me why we have movies in the first place. We obsess over these stories, love the characters and invest our emotions into the events. And when we are rewarded, the payoff is huge. Watching “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” is a treat for the eyes, ears, brain and heart. This is a film that audiences of virtually any age can attend, and there will be something for everyone. This is filmmaking on about as grand a scale as anyone can produce, which is why it is yielding results about as grand as anyone could imagine.

Erik Benjamin is a sophomore television, radio and film major. You can email him at ebenjami@syr.edu or follow him @embenjamin14 on Twitter.

Published on December 21, 2015 at 10:08 pm