‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ grosses $120 million, breaks first-day record

The movie is likely to become the highest grossing film in an opening weekend Disney added, while reporting that it had already made $250 million globally. It’s Star Wars, after all.

“I saw the original trilogy and I thought if there was any way to be part of bringing that back, it would be incredible”.

“Abrams’ film is also smashing records overseas, where it has amassed a stunning $72.7 million in its first two days for a global tally of almost $130 million”.

Anything is possible but the next pin to knock down is Jurassic World’s $208 opening weekend record – a figure that Star Wars was nearly halfway towards thanks to advanced tickets. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 previously reigned by earning $91.1 million in July 2011. Lara Tshering takes a photograph of her brother Ugyen Tshering as he stands next to the Star Wars movie poster during opening night of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” at Century Theatre in Boulder, Colo., Thursday, … “The Force Awakens” is simultaneously opening around the world just about everywhere but China, where it debuts in January.

“There are literally millions of tickets available for this weekend, and exhibitors have a lot of flexibility in terms of capacity and increasing the number of shows based on demand”, said Dave Hollis, EVP of distribution at Disney.

Disney said that the strong showing for the latest “Star Wars”, which is playing at 4,134 North American theaters, “keeps us forecasting an opening weekend near $220 million”.

The movie is opening three years after Disney paid $4.06 billion for Lucasfilm. Sequels and spinoffs are already in development for years to come, not to mention an entire corner of Disneyland devoted to the franchise. Currently, “The Force Awakens” stands at 95 percent.

Skyfall, the previous James Bond film, is now the highest-grossing film at the United Kingdom and Ireland box office, having made nearly £103m domestically. The current record holder is “Avatar”, which generated $2.8 billion worldwide after its December 2009 release.

But so far, “The Force Awakens” is attracting the interest of seemingly everyone. Thousands gathered for a friendly light saber battle in downtown Los Angeles on Friday, and moviegoers in cities such as Berlin and Paris arrived at screenings wearing Stormtrooper costumes, Jedi robes and Darth Vader masks.

“Clearly, this is not the most important event that’s taking place in the White House today”, Obama said to start the press conference. “There’s a screening of Star Wars” for people who lost a family member in the Iraq war”.