‘Star Wars’ smashes box office record

The film, the seventh installment of the Star Wars franchise created by George Lucas in 1977, surpassed the prior record for an opening weekend of $208 million set in June by “Jurassic World”. “The Force Awakens” brought in a record $238 million-plus over the weekend at the North American box office, so its worldwide or global total is roughly $517 million.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens has already smashed several film industry records and won praise from critics and moviegoers.

However, that tally included $US99 million in China, where The Force Awakens does not open until January 9.

The Force Awakens has taken an estimated $517m (£347m) globally in three days.

Strong reviews have been pouring in for the latest Star Wars film, which is set 30 years after Return of the Jedi.

The Force Awakens made $57m (£38m) on Thursday night – beating the previous record of $43.5m held by Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 in 2011.

“Mind-blowing” and “earth-shattering” were the terms used by a normally sanguine Paul Dergarabedian, who tracks the media by numbers at Rentrak. It also set records in Britain, Australia, Russia and elsewhere as fans embraced a new chapter in the galactic battle between good and evil.

Stockbroker Hargreaves Lansdown said: “In its last trading update, management highlighted that two forthcoming major releases – Star Wars: The Force Awakens and latest Bond movie Spectre – were likely to be big draws at the box office”.

Movie theater attendance in the United States and Canada, the world’s largest film market, has barely changed in a decade as online and mobile platforms exploded.

Disney paid just over $4 billion U.S. for Lucasfilm, the production company behind Star Wars, in 2012, an investment that now appears to be paying off. Sequels and spinoffs are in development for years to come.