‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ crosses $250 million mark globally

It’s Star Wars, after all.

There are probably plenty of repeat viewings happening among fans, but The Force Awakens may not have the staying power of Avatar or Titanic, the films that have the top two spots in both the domestic and global box office charts.

Such an outcome would surprise few analysts, but the numbers were nevertheless eye-popping.

That includes a chart-topping $US57 million from fans who rushed out to see the first showings on Thursday night.

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

Filmmaker George Lucas, left, and writer-director J.J. Abrams attend the premiere of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”.

In Britain, Germany, Australia, Russia and many other countries, it scored the biggest opening weekend as well.

Thanks to the massive debut of “The Force Awakens” the overall box office for all movies this weekend also broke a record, bringing in over $300 million for the first time in history. Saturday and Sunday will depend more on traditional walk-up business. Disney said theaters were adding showtimes to meet “unprecedented demand”.

Since beginning its overseas rollout Wednesday, “The Force Awakens” has made an estimated $129.5 million internationally.

“The Force Awakens” started screening on Thursday evening with hundreds of sellouts following months of massive marketing.

The film is playing at a total of 4,134 North American locations on Friday – a record for a December opening.

A select number of theatres began screenings on Thursday night, the culmination of 17-hour-long Star Wars marathon events.

“The potential for “The Force Awakens” to ultimately break into the $2 billion club worldwide is certainly in the realm of possibility”, said Paul Dergarabedian, of box office tracker Rentrak.

Needless to say, the $4 billion purchase by Disney of Lucasfilm is looking to be money well spent.

More importantly, the film sets the scene for more sequels to come, not to mention multimedia spinoffs and merchandising.