Star Wars breaks box office records

Star Wars: The Force Awakens continues to burn through the box office record book as it heads towards an opening day Friday over $100 million, according to studio estimates.

Boxofficemojo adds that The Force Awakens is now the largest single day performer of all time in UK/Ireland ($14.4m), Germany ($7.1m), Sweden ($1.7m) and Norway ($1.1.m) and boasts the largest opening day in Australia, Austria, Brazil, Belgium, Chile, Croatia, Finland, Iceland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Peru, Serbia, Slovakia, Switzerland (French-speaking) and Ukraine.

That will easily beat the Thursday night record set in July 2011 for the release of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2”, which took in $43.5 million. Additionally, The Force Awakens has already sold $100 million worth of advance tickets, which means it’s made back half of its $200 million budget.

“Abrams’ film is also smashing records overseas, where it has amassed a stunning $72.7 million in its first two days for a global tally of almost $130 million”.

Some three years after Disney bought George Lucas’ Lucasfilm Ltd for Dollars 4 billion, it has now brought the first Star Wars movie to cinemas. Midnight screenings on Thursday morning accounted for £2.4m of ticket sales.

Disney said 47 percent of Thursday’s domestic ticket sales came from higher-priced 3D tickets.

They join newbies such as main stars Daisy Ridley and John Boyega, as well as Oscar Isaac and Adam Driver, who plays the new villain Kylo Ren.

Speaking at the European premiere of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” in London’s Leicester Square this week, he told the BBC: “I’m glad people are interested”.

The ticket sales figures from Walt Disney Co late Friday indicated that the film could eclipse the $208.8 million record set by dinosaur adventure film “Jurassic World” in June.

In the film, the start of a third trilogy, Ford reprises his role as Han Solo for the first time in 32 years.