Producers
J.J. Abrams, Kathleen Kennedy, Bryan Burk
Production Companies
Bad Robot Productions and Lucasfilm LTD.
Director
J.J. Abrams
Screenwriters
J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan
Actors
Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Harrison Ford, Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, Gwendoline Christie and Mark Hamill.
Budget
$200 million (£132 million)
Locations
England, Ireland, Iceland and United Arab Emirates.
Greenlight Date
Disney announced a new trilogy in 2012 but it was November 7th 2013 that Disney announced the release date or the film (December 18th 2015).
Number of screens on opening weekend
937 IMAX worldwide and over 4000 screens in North America.
Peak figure
In the opening weekend the film made $247,966,675
Number of weeks in the cinema
24 weeks until the 2nd of June 2016
Critical reaction
Rotten Tomatoes - 92% enjoyed the film. It was described as being packed with action and populated by both familiar faces and fresh blood. The film was also praised for successfully recalling the series' former glory while still adding extra energy.
Metacritic - got a 81 out of 100 score based off of 52 critics reviews. There were 48 positive reviews, 4 mixed and there aren't any negative reviews recorded.
Box Office Figures
Worldwide - $2,068,223,624
US - $936,662,225
China -$124,159,138
Music
John Williams was the composer for the score for the film.
Marketing
All 6 of the previous films available on streaming services in order to build up anticipation for the upcoming film. They also brought out a large amount of licensed merchandise, ranging from toys to Kraft macaroni and cheese. The team felt that it was important to reassure fans that the sequels would be good, so throughout all of the marketing there was a lot of emphasis on the use of practical effects and the use of real life locations as much as possible to keep the 'lived in' aesthetic of the previous films. There were a number of teaser trailers released, with the second one being shown at Star Wars Celebration with the classic theme tune playing in the background and the return of familiar faces e.g. Han Solo - this was received well by audiences. Disney were releasing TV adverts nearly every other day, but managed to keep crucial plot information secret. Even the third proper trailer set up the characters and their motivation without giving anything away.
Tie-in Products
- Lego
- Oranges with BB8 packaging
- Duracell Batteries
- Toothpaste
- Makeup - Covergirl collection with mascara, lipstick and nail varnish
- Spotify - Star Wars match based on music taste
- Popcorn
- Stamps
- HP released a special edition Notebook with 'battle-worn design', Darth Vader head on flip side of the screen, rare Star Wars content and wallpapers preloaded.
Special Effects
There are number of explosions carried out throughout the duration of the film. There is also the use of green screens in certain scenes, however they were only used when there was no way of creating it in real life. Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) was used for a lot of the battle scenes and action sequences, but again was only used when necessary and if it would actually benefit the whole effect of the scene. The Raised Speeder that the character Daisy Ridley rides on near the beginning of the film was re-created after starring in one of the early Star Wars film. Special effects were needed to bring this to life as it hovered in the air, it needed to look realistic while still maintaining the out-of-this-world effect that Star Wars has built. For scenes where they were completely done with CGI the team worked to make it appear as realistic as possible. They achieved this by moving the camera at a speed that could be achieved in the real world. In order to stay in keeping with the effect of the previous Star Wars films to please the fans they had to maintain the real effect of it, they did this with minimal use of CGI and green screens. 
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