'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' Sets Opening Day Box Office Record

The force was indeed strong with “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” which shattered opening day domestic box office records.

Ticket sales reached an estimated $120.5 million in the movie’s first day of release, surpassing the record set in 2011 by “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2,” according to Rentrak. Rey, Finn and the new cast of “Star Wars” characters similarly trounced the opening-day performance of “Marvel’s The Avengers,” “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” and the “Twilight Saga.” Opening day box office includes the revenue from the Thursday previews.

“This represents a record for the industry and portends a massive and potentially record-breaking opening weekend for the film,” wrote Rentrak Senior Media Analyst Paul Dergarabedian.

Rentrak projects that “The Force Awakens,” which reviewers describe as both a tribute to the 1977 original and a reboot of the saga, is on its way to a stellar $220 million opening weekend. That would trample the current U.S. box-office record-holder, “Jurassic World” ($208.8 million), and runner-up “Marvel’s The Avengers” ($207.4 million).

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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