“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.
