‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Sets Opening Day Box Office Record

“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” has set a box office record with an estimated $57 million from Thursday night shows.

“Force Awakens” surpassed the previous opening-day record of $43.5 million set in 2011 by the final “Harry Potter” movie.

Through Friday, global ticket sales reached $US129.5 million, setting opening-day records in Britain, Germany, Brazil, Australia and other countries.

If youve been awake over the last few days, you know that Star Wars: The Force Awakens just opened; its kind of a big deal.

Walt Disney Co released its projections late Friday stating USA and Canadian ticket sales were hurtling towards $125m (£84m) that day and it could bring in $225m (£151m) through Sunday, which would give it the biggest opening weekend of all time.

So far, the Disney film has pulled in roughly $130 million worldwide since opening overseas on Wednesday. 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, …

At the start of the press conference, Obama said The Force Awakens was being screened in the White House Friday for military families.

Cue the Imperial March, because the new “Star Wars” is power-stepping its way into the record books with dramatic precision. The new Star Wars film is the first in a decade and the seventh instalment in the series created by George Lucas.

Maybe it’s possible that Star Wars transcends all age brackets and movie fans, and whether Disney aimed the film at teens to 20 somethings, it still grabbed the 40-60 crowd due to the fact that actors like Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, and Carrie Fisher were involved in the film. The movie ticket service Fandango said it has already sold more tickets for “The Force Awakens” than any movie over its entire theatrical run.

China is the world’s second-largest film market. Box Office Mojo predicted yesterday that the film could rake in $231 million in its opening weekend, but analysts there now say that number “may be in jeopardy of being too low”.

“The Force Awakens” picks up the intergalactic story of good versus evil 30 years on from “The Return of the Jedi”, the finale of the original trilogy. The record is held by Avatar with $US2.8 billion.

Even the White House is not immune to The Force.