Star Wars: The Force Awakens is on pace to easily push aside Jurassic World’s record opening, which only ended up standing for less than half a year. The Force Awakens has already had the biggest Thursday night and Friday on record and is poised to set the opening weekend record.
Considering that the movie reportedly made $100 million from pre-sale tickets, none of this is surprising. The Disney marketing machine has been working non-stop for over a year to make sure everyone, even those who aren’t big Star Wars fans, felt the need to see it as soon as possible. All that marketing more than worked.
Exhibitor Relations reported that the film did pass Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2’s $44 million Thursday night with $57 million. Disney quickly said that the film would likely become the first movie ever to make over $100 million on a single day and that’s exactly what happened. Box Office.com reports that it is estimated to have made $120 million to $125 million on Friday alone.
While Disney’s rivals in Hollywood are expecting it to each $250 million, Disney is still predicting $215 million by the end of the weekend, notes Variety. It won’t matter what the specific number is, since it will likely pass the $208.4 million Jurassic World opened to in June.
Disney has also said that The Force Awakens made $72.7 million in two days outside North America. It could pass two other big Jurassic World records - best international opening ($316.1 million) and best worldwide opening ($524.9 million).
You can check out our review of the film right here.