clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

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

The new installment surpasses the opening day record set by "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2."

Robyn Beck/ AFP /Getty Images

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.

Sign up for the newsletter Sign up for Vox Recommends

Get curated picks of the best Vox journalism to read, watch, and listen to every week, from our editors.