The Force takes in record $353m

The U.S. opening day record was previously held by “Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows: Part 2”, which raked in $91 million when it bowed in 2011.

But so far, “The Force Awakens” is attracting the interest of seemingly everyone.

Over the past few days, the talk of the planet has been about Star Wars: The Force Awakens – and there are now box office numbers that truly prove just that.

“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” matinees are putting the movie on course to top $100 million in North American ticket sales through Friday, giving the picture a good chance to break the $208.8 million opening-weekend record set this summer by “Jurassic World”. The new Star Wars movie “The Force Awakens” was shown at the White House for children of military families. The Force Awakens’ global total of $517 million puts it just shy of Jurassic World’s $525 million global record.

It also shattered numerous records around the world this weekend.

The movie has opened in all markets except Greece and India, where it starts playing on Christmas Eve, and China, which has set a Jan 9 debut.

Experts believe the space adventure flick could even beat Skyfall, which is the highest-grossing movie in the United Kingdom and Ireland, after it made nearly £103m domestically.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens has triumphed with the country’s biggest opening weekend in history, according to Disney Canada. Subsequent weekend records, however, are still up for grabs along with the fastest to $300 million and so on, not to mention the overall domestic record now held by Avatar at $760.5 million.

Audiences clearly responded, giving the film an A CinemaScore rating and a 95 percent positive review on Rotten Tomatoes. “This gives us an idea of how much a movie can make on a particular weekend”. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) raunchy comedy Sisters, starring Tiny Fey and Amy Poehler, and Fox’s (NASDAQ:FOX) Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip saw soft grosses.

A lot is riding on the film for Disney, which paid $4.06 billion for Lucasfilm in 2012.

“For “Star Wars” fans and Hollywood, this weekend was like the Super Bowl, the World Series and the Kentucky Derby all rolled into one perfectly realized movie event”, said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Rentrak.