A boatload. (A Star Destroyerload? Ugh.)
The film officially opened last night and took in an estimated $55 million from screenings between 7pm and midnight. Due to Hollywood’s convoluted box office math—those screenings were technically “previews”—that money will count as if it was earned today, which means that The Force Awakens will almost certainly smash the record set by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. II, which earned $90 million in its first day. Jurassic World currently owns the record for largest opening weekend—$208.8M—but The Force Awakens should easily best that as well.
Here’s something even less surprising: “Force Awakens is largely drawing older males at 71 percent guys, 53 percent over 25.” We’re just over 12 hours into life in a post-Force Awakens world and so far it’s exactly what we thought it would be.
Of course, box office records aren’t adjusted for inflation. If they were, The Force Awakens wouldn’t even come close to touching A New Hope, which sold an estimated 230 million tickets.