‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ smashes ‘Harry Potter’ Thursday box office record

White House press secretary Josh Earnest also made an appearance later in the briefing room alongside a pair of Star Wars Stormtroopers and the droid R2-D2.

“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” hurtled toward $125 million in USA and Canadian ticket sales on Friday and a potential record-breaking $225 million through Sunday, giving the long-awaited movie a shot at the biggest opening weekend of all time.

Here’s the thing, these previews roll into the numbers for the following day, so that $57 million will count towards The Force Awakens’ Friday. Until a few hours ago that record belonged to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 which made $43.5 million at midnight back in 2011. The early figures suggest “The Force Awakens” is on course to exceed the record domestic opening of “Jurassic World”, which debuted with $208.8 million.

Disney’s biggest worry has been that moviegoers will be too daunted by sold-out shows and long lines. Disney said cinemas in the USA were adding screenings to meet unprecedented demand. J.J. Abrams’ film could also become the first movie to top $100 million in a single day, when it officially opens in 4,134 theaters Friday.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens opened in theatres on Thursday.

3-D and Imax screenings are helping to propel the record gross. Worldwide sales reached $US72.7 million ($10.1 million) through Thursday, Disney said.

Disney bought George Lucas’ Lucasfilm for $US4 billion ($5.5 billion) in 2012.

“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 movie has strong connections with the United Kingdom film business. 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.

It seems, the Force is all around us-on the news, at the stores, and on Twitter.

President Barack Obama slipped in a reference to the film during his end of year press conference before he the holiday season.