Star Wars Tops Harry Potter Box Office Record

The Walt Disney Co.is forecasting that “The Force Awakens” will make more than $100 million in North America on Friday and is headed for a weekend total beyond $200 million.

Box office analysts went into the weekend expecting the new “Star Wars” from director J.J. Abrams to gross $180 million to $220 million through Sunday in its domestic opening weekend.

All three of those records were previous held by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 in 2011, which took in $91.1 million on its first day.

This all comes after studio estimates showed that The Force Awakens exploded out of the box office at Thursday night previews, taking a record $57 million.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens opened on Thursday so would have to perform staggeringly well over the weekend to top the latest James Bond’s film’s £41.3m debut, which was calculated over seven days as it opened on a Monday. Disney bought “Star Wars” producer Lucasfilm for $4 billion in 2012.

“We are obviously very encouraged by the record-breaking pre-sales for Star Wars: The Force Awakens”, Dave Hollis, the executive vice president of distribution at Disney, said in a statement.

As it stands right now, Jurassic World holds the record for biggest opening weekend. Based on the early response, many analysts have the film pegged for a weekend total closer to $250 million – far above “Jurassic World”. Although it would be the second day of premiere, Saturday is the busiest day before Christmas shopping week. The Force Awakens shattered its first record with advanced ticket sales, reportedly selling eight times as many tickets than the previous record holder, The Hunger Games, to the tune of million.

Just take a look at the attractive music-only The Force Awakens trailer. That includes the biggest single day ever in the United Kingdom, where it made an estimated $14.4 million.

Imax and 3-D screenings are helping to propel the record gross. Sequels and spinoffs are already in development for years to come, not to mention an entire corner of Disneyland devoted to the franchise.

The seventh chapter in George Lucas’ space saga is set 30 years after Return Of The Jedi, and is crucial to Disney’s success.

The Force Awakens is a genuine cultural phenomenon.