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.
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Guinness played Obi-Wan in George Lucas’s original Star Wars trilogy before he died in 2000. “Force Awakens” will have to more than double that advance total, though, to break the opening-weekend record of $208.8 million set by “Jurassic World” just this past – yes – summer. When you first saw a Star Wars film depends a lot on how old you are, as younger Americans are unsurprisingly a lot more likely to have first seen the movies when they were kids.
Global ticket sales through two days neared $130 million, Walt Disney Co said. It also set records in Britain, Australia, Russia and elsewhere as fans embraced a new chapter in the galactic battle between good and evil.
As excited fans gathered at theaters around the country last night, investors and film analysts watched ticket sales to see whether The Force Awakens would beat box office expectations.
“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.
Globally, the latest “Star Wars” space epic raked in an estimated $517 million, falling in second behind “Jurassic World”, which earned $524.9 million worldwide in its first weekend, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Despite vehemently denying past rumors, Craig did appear in The Force Awakens as a Storm Trooper, specifically the Storm Trooper Rey Jedi mind-tricks into releasing her from Kylo Ren’s torture chair.
The J.J. Abrams-directed film, The Force Awakens, brings back Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill along with a new cast consisting of Daisy Ridley, John Boyega and Oscar Isaac. McGregor portrays Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequels, while Oz is known for being the well-known voice of Yoda.
Disney, which spent more than $200 million to make “Force Awakens”, also created intrigue by keeping the plot largely secret.
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Audiences awarded it an “A” rating in polling by survey firm CinemaScore, Disney said.
