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Star Wars breaks box office records

“The Force Awakens” fever spread through movie theaters around the globe on Friday, even reaching the White House, as “Star Wars” yet again began toppling box-office records with waves of lightsaber-wielding fans.

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Members of the Intergalactic Krewe of Chewbacchus fight with lightsabers, Thursday, Dec. 17, 2015, in New Orleans.

The 73-year-old actor – who has reprised the role of Han Solo for the much-anticipated new movie – feels “proud” of the J.J. Abrams-directed film and touched by the support of fans.

Breaking records… In a surprise to no one, Star Wars: The Force Awakens is already a box office smash.

The movie has opened in 44 countries outside North America, earning $72.7 million in total through Thursday. That includes the biggest single day ever in the United Kingdom, where it made an estimated $14.4 million.

The Force Awakens opened in 12 worldwide markets on Wednesday and expanded to 32 others on Thursday. Disney bought Star Wars producer Lucasfilm for $US4 billion in 2012 and spent more than $US200 million to produce Force Awakens. If they’re going to take home the title for the highest grossing opening weekend of all time, and they nearly certainly are, Jurassic World’s $208 million is the number to beat.

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.

The film – the seventh instalment in the series created by George Lucas in 1977 – cost Disney an estimated $200m (£134m) to make.

Its official: US moviegoers can finally return to a galaxy far, far away.

Critics lavished praise on Force Awakens, which features newcomers Daisy Ridley, John Boyega and Oscar Isaac alongside original stars Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher.

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The Force Awakens scored a 95% positive rating on review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, scoring an average of 8.2 out of 10 in more than 250 reviews.

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