‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ box office: $250 million and counting

That breaks the previous one-day record of $91 million set by 2011’s “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows II”.

Directed by JJ Abrams, Star Wars: The Force Awakens returns to “a galaxy far, far away” some 30 years on from the action of 1983’s Return of the Jedi.

“Jurassic World” opened in June with $208.8 million in the United States and Canada and a take of $525 million worldwide.

But this may just be the beginning of the film’s box office empire with movie choices in January and February pretty depleted at the cineplex. The movie opened in 12 worldwide markets on Wednesday.

When the 49-year-old behind The Force Awakens was initially offered the movie by Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, he said he felt it was not the right move for him. Theaters added showtimes to meet demand, Disney said.

Standing next to his wife, who was decked out in a R2-D2 hoodie, Chris Barreno was getting ready Saturday for his second viewing of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” at a theater in in El Segundo, Calif.

Analysts predict that the seventh instalment of the iconic space saga, which cost Disney an estimated $200 million to produce, could become the biggest film of all time. Disney’s carefully planned release of film trailers and information over several months also boosted sales, he said.

Although ArcLight Cinemas told Disney that they were going to honor their commitment to Tarantino, Disney threatened to pull Star Wars: The Force Awakens from all ArcLight locations in retaliation.

Although it’s easy to argue that the price of movie tickets has something to do with record breaking, and you could argue that with any other film out there, but the sheer volume of people who have gone to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens truly exceeded expectations. Whether “The Force Awakens” can come close to the global hauls of those films ($2.8 billion for “Avatar” and $2.2 billion for “Titanic”) won’t be clear for weeks.

But “The Force Awakens” is riding a wave of hype, nostalgia and positive reviews from critics and fans alike.