After beating two Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 records on Thursday and Friday, The Force Awakens went on to set a new record for an opening weekend.
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Update 2 (Sunday, December 20): The Force Awakens made $238 million domestically in its opening weekend, according to a statement from Disney. That impressive number makes it the biggest opening weekend in history. The previous record holder was this summer’s Jurassic World with $208 million.
The seventh Star Wars installment made $517 million globally, meaning it’s well on its way to becoming the most successful film in history.
“Our sole focus has been creating a film that delivers that one-of-a-kind Star Wars experience, and director J.J. Abrams, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy, and the Lucasfilm team have outdone themselves,” said Alan Horn, Chairman, The Walt Disney Studios in a statement. “To all of the fans around the world who not only came out in Force to make this such an exciting and astronomical debut but who treated this film as their own and helped preserve the experience for their fellow fans by not spoiling it – thank you, we do.”
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Update 1 (Saturday, December 19): Star Wars made $120.5 million on Friday, besting the previous record of $91 million set by Deathly Hallows, Part 2 in July 2011 (that’s the second Potter record The Force Awakens has beaten — see below). This is the first time has ever made over $100 million in a single day.
The Force Awakens is on track to make well over $200 million by the end of the weekend, which will make it the biggest opening weekend for any film ever (Jurassic World’s $208 million is the number to beat).
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Original story (Friday, December 18): The Force Awakens pulled in $57 million on Thursday night in the United States, making it the #1 Thursday night opening in box office history. That number brings the movie’s worldwide gross (so far) to $72 million.
The eighth and final Harry Potter movie was the previous record holder — it made $43.5 million in July 2011. Deathly Hallows, Part 2 went on to gross $1.341 billion worldwide.
Fandango announced yesterday that, as of Thursday pre-opening, the seventh Star Wars movie had already sold more tickets than any other movie in Fandango history. In other words, it’s already the most popular movie ever.
Everyone knows that the new Star Wars is going to make a lot of money. The only question is: exactly how much? And how long will it take to (inevitably) take down Jurassic World, the most successful movie of 2015?
This article will stay up to date all weekend as new box office numbers come in. Stay tuned for more updates!