Who needs Christmas movies when you have Star Wars? Droves turned out to see The Force Awakens during their day off on Friday, as the J.J. Abrams film crushed the Christmas Day box office record with $49.3 million in sales. That figure was undoubtedly bolstered by the holiday landing on a Friday — the past record was held by Sherlock Holmes, which made $24.6 million when it opened on Friday, December 25th, 2009.
The Force Awakens doubles previous Christmas Day record with $49.3 million box office
If you want even more box office records, The Force Awakens looks as if it will handily defeat Jurassic World’s record 17 days to cross the $500 million mark in the US. Star Wars is expected to earn upwards of $160 million this holiday weekend, which would see it pass $500 million in just ten days after release. Globally, the film has already earned $890 million, which means it will cross $1 billion in record time as well.
Of course, after release last week, The Force Awakens also set new records for opening weekend box office numbers when it hit $528 million globally and $238 million in the US alone.
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