Star Wars: The Force Awakens Sets New Thursday Box Office Record

J.J. Abrams has done a marvelous job of rebooting Star Wars for a new generation not only of fans but of the people who live in the story as well.

The Force has topped Harry Potter as “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” took in $57 million in opening Thursday-night preview shows in the USA, setting its first box office record.

Truck driver Caroline Ritter, 34 and firefighter Andrew Porters, 29, are among about 100 fans who have been camped outside Hollywood’s Chinese Theatre since December 5 for the opening of The Force Awakens.

Such an outcome would surprise few analysts, but the numbers were nevertheless eye-popping. “I don’t care about it”, she said as all her friends laughed. Hollis has repeatedly reminded that “there are literally millions of tickets available”.

All the experts in this sort of thing are expecting the movie to fetch somewhere around $250M – $315M in the United States of America domestic opening and it could possibly top Jurassic World’s worldwide debut record of $524.9M. That includes the biggest single day ever in the United Kingdom, where it made an estimated $14.4 million.

The Force Awakens has also enjoyed the biggest opening day ever in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, Finland, the Netherlands and Switzerland. That’s the Friday estimate, according to USA Today.

3-D and Imax screenings are helping to propel the record gross. Her mother brought her to the historic venue for the original film in 1977; Charles watched the prequels there while pregnant with her son; and all three generations came to the first showing of “The Force Awakens” Thursday night. In summary, however, resistance to Disney / Lucasfilm appears to be futile. Sequels and spinoffs are already in development for years to come, not to mention an entire corner of Disneyland devoted to the franchise. The video is filled with some interesting and insightful answers into the inspirations and creative process behind these stars and filmmakers of The Force Awakens.

Studios mainly focus on 13-28 year-olds, which means this group of people which are reportedly the majority going to see this particular movie most likely haven’t seen many of these films, and if they have it’s possible they didn’t like at least half of them.

As far as all-time box office sales, two films by James Cameron hold the record ― Avatar (US$2.78 billion) and Titanic (US$2.18).