‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Vaporizes Weekend U.S. Box Office Record

The production of Disney and Lucasfilm was 14 percent ahead of the previous opening weekend record of 208.8 million dollars of domestic income for “Jurassic World” this summer. However, Jurassic World still holds the worldwide opening record with a massive $524.9 million, due in large part to its same-day opening in China.

The Force Awakens also set North American records for widest December release, biggest Thursday night previews, fastest film to $100 million and $200 million at the box office, biggest IMAX opening and highest per-theater average for a wide release ($58,000).

With its Death Star-sized box office Friday in the US, the Disney film has now in just one day eclipsed the biggest “Star Wars” opening weekend, the biggest December opening weekend, and the biggest opening weekend for director J.J. Abrams.

Biggest opening weekend of all time in United Kingdom (4-day), Australia, Russia, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Austria, Poland (3-day), Denmark (5-day), Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Croatia, Ukraine, Iceland, Serbia, New Zealand. After all, how can a company that is known for its feel-good princess movies do justice to epic franchises like Indiana Jones and Star Wars?

Two of the other “major” films bowing this weekend – Universal’s “Sisters” with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler (opening in 2,962 locations) and Fox’s “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip” (opening in 3,653 locations) – netted $5 million and $4 million respectively on Friday.

Globally, “The Force Awakens” landed at $517 million after opening to $279 million overseas.

But movies like Avatar, which only opened to $77 million in 2009, went on to make nearly $750 million domestically, making it the biggest movie of all time. The release of the first Star Wars movie under the Disney banner has alleviated those doubts. Greenfield said the success of “Force Awakens” would not offset the impact of subscriber losses at ESPN.

“Titanic”, another Cameron movie, is placed second with $2.18 billion.

Force Awakens has already smashed several film industry records and won praise from critics and moviegoers.