JJ Abrams thought Star Wars would hurt his career

When JJ Abrams was offered the opportunity to direct Star Wars: The Force Awakens, he initially turned it down to avoid becoming “the guy who does sequels”. That sum would handily defeat Jurassic World, which set a new record of $208.8 million when it debuted in North America this summer.

Fans embraced the new installment in the series: A clash between good and evil in a galaxy far, far away.

“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” is hyperspeeding to a weekend total as high as of $250 million after setting an opening day box office record with $120.5 million generated on Friday, according to Saturday estimates. Thursday night previews also broke previous records by hauling in $57 million.

The new Star Wars film is the first instalment in a decade of the series, which was created by George Lucas in 1977. It pulled in $US120.5 million through Friday, its first full day in domestic theatres, the highest single-day ticket sales ever. However, after mulling over the project with his wife, Katie McGrath, he agreed to helm the movie which opened in cinemas across the global on 17 December. It’s not anything to do with the story; it’s just seeing your character’s name consistently coming up in a script for a film that is “Star Wars”! China is the world’s second-largest film market.

Nomura Securities analyst Anthony DiClemente, who rates Disney a “buy”, said he was more confident after seeing the movie that it could become the top-grossing film of all time.

As far as all-time box office sales, two films by James Cameron hold the record – “Avatar” ($2.78 billion) and “Titanic” ($2.18 billion).

And it looks like his gamble paid off because the film – which is the seventh from its franchise and stars Harrison Ford and Londerer newcomers Daisy Ridley and John Boyega – took £9.6m at the box office in its first day alone.

Audiences awarded an “A” rating in polling by survey firm CinemaScore, Disney said.