‘Star Wars’ Soars Overseas but Can’t Break Foreign, Worldwide Records

Star Wars: The Force Awakens has shattered North American box office records by scoring the biggest opening of all time with a $238 million (£159 million) haul.

“The Force Awakens” could not trump “Jurassic World’s” record worldwide debut of $524.9 million, but that film also benefited from an opening in China where it made more than $90 million in its first weekend of release.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens has smashed through the Australian opening weekend and opening week box office records and is set to gross more than Harry Potter and Avatar.

Yesterday’s £8.6 million ($12.8 million) takings were the biggest Saturday figure of all time in the United Kingdom and Ireland, beating the two current leading three-day openers, “Skyfall” and “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 2” at this stage in release.

However, “The Force Awakens” has yet to open in China, the world’s second biggest film market. The film posted the highest Thursday preview gross ever ($57 million), the highest single day and Friday gross ($120.5 million), and it is the first film to surpass $100 million in a single day.

The movie was a global phenomenon, attracting record audiences in markets such as Australia, Britain, Germany and Russian Federation, according to Rentrak.

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.

To say that the force is strong with this one isn’t almost enough.

The new “Star Wars” film is the first installment in a decade of the series, which was created by George Lucas in 1977.

That’s because the seventh film in the main Star Wars franchise is rewriting the record books – even if an ol’ Jedi scribe (Lawrence Kasdan) helped recharge the story.

Critics applauded Force Awakens, which features newcomers Daisy Ridley, John Boyega and Oscar Isaac alongside original stars Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher.

“Star Wars” now rules the box office galaxy.

The overseas rollout of the film started on Wednesday and since then it has made an estimated $129.5 million internationally.