MUMBAI: The opening weekend for Star Wars: The Force Awakens is officially the biggest in North American box office history, ahead of its India release on 25 December.

 
The movie’s first weekend in theaters, the seventh film of the franchise brought in $238 million. The previous record-holder was Jurassic World, which made $208.8 million during its debut weekend over the summer.

 
Globally, Star Wars brought in $517 million, coming in just under the $525 million that Jurassic World made. However, the latter had the advantage of opening in China as well; The Force Awakens doesn’t come out there until 9 January, 2016.

 
Star Wars: The Force Awakens posted the highest Thursday preview gross ($57 million), the highest single-day and Friday gross ($120.5 million), and it is the first film to surpass $100 million in a single day. It also posted the highest theater average for a wide release with $57,568.

 
Marking the biggest opening weekend ever in numerous key territories, including the UK, Germany, Australia, and Russia, Star Wars: The Force Awakens posted an estimated international opening weekend of $279 million (third highest reported opening weekend in industry history, behindJurassic World at $316 million including around $97 million China and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt 2 at $314 million) and topping the previous December record held by Avatar ($164.5 million).

 
Star Wars: The Force Awakens storm-trooped its way across the global landscape (except for China) this weekend to post an amazing estimated $517 million global gross.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens also generated a record-breaking estimated $48 million from Imax screens globally, beating the previous Jurassic World record of $44 (which included China).

Star Wars: The Force Awakens was on over 30,000 screens internationally this weekend. It opened at #1 in all markets throughout the world with the exception of Korea and Vietnam, where it was the #1 western films.

In the Asia-Pacific, the movie raked in $75.7 million, whereas in Latin America, it totted $36.0 million.

 
Star Wars: The Force Awakens is directed by JJ Abrams and stars Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong'o, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Max von Sydow.

The movie opens in India on 25 December in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.