New Star Wars may become biggest movie ever

That surpassed the previous opening-day record of $43.5 million for the final Harry Potter movie in 2011.

Sure enough, Star Wars: The Force Awakens crushed the Potter record with $120.5 million versus $91 million, a roughly 33 percent beat.

The film’s blockbuster opening set all-time records in multiple territories, including the United Kingdom ($48.9 million), Germany ($27.3 million), Australia ($18.9 million) and Russian Federation ($12.3 million).

“Force Awakens has a shot at becoming the highest-grossing movie of all time, according to some analysts”.

“The potential for The Force Awakens to ultimately break into the $2bn club worldwide is certainly in the realm of possibility”, he said.

“With incredible reviews and an excited hardcore fan base that will want to go back over and over again, “Force Awakens” will have long-term playability well into 2016 where it should earn the lion’s share of its potentially record breaking worldwide revenue”, Dergarabedian said.

On Saturday, the first box-office figures from Star Wars: The Force Awakens streamed in, revealing the flick to be the unprecedented sales smash that many expected.

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

The movie already smashed several film industry records and won praise from critics and moviegoers.

“Our sole focus has been creating a film that delivers that one-of-a-kind Star Wars experience, and director J.J. Abrams, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy, and the Lucasfilm team have outdone themselves”, reads a press release from Alan Horn, chairman of Walt Disney Studios. China is the world’s second-largest film market.

The film is being screened in 4,134 theatres in North America, a record for a December opening.

The White House was not immune to the Star Wars mania and Obama rushed to finish a press conference so that he and Gold Star families and children of fallen soldiers could catch a glimpse of the film in a special White House screening. It’s a type of release never before seen in December, where the previous top opening was 2012’s “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” with $84.6 million.