Star Wars: The Force Awakens has hauled in an estimated $US250 million ($A351.25 million) at global movie box offices and is on track to finish its opening weekend with record US and Canadian ticket sales.
The seventh movie in the celebrated sci-fi franchise is projected to sell close to $US220 million worth of tickets in the United States and Canada alone through to Sunday, beating the record $US208.8 million for Jurassic World in June, Walt Disney said on Saturday.
The movie has already smashed several film industry records and won praise from critics and moviegoers.
It collected $US120.5 million on Friday, its first full day in domestic cinemas, the highest single-day ticket sales ever.
That includes a chart-topping $US57 million from fans who rushed out to see the first showings on Thursday night.
Force Awakens began rolling out in global markets on Wednesday.
Through Friday, international ticket sales reached $US129.5 million, setting opening-day records in Britain, Germany, Brazil, Australia and other countries.
The new Star Wars film is the first instalment in a decade in the series created by George Lucas in 1977.
Disney bought Star Wars producer Lucasfilm for $US4 billion in 2012 and spent more than $US200 million to produce Force Awakens.
The movie is now open in all markets except Greece and India, where it opens December 24, and China, which has set a January 9 debut.
China is the world's second-largest film market.
Force Awakens has a shot at becoming the highest-grossing movie of all time, according to some analysts.
The current record holder is Avatar, which generated $US2.8 billion worldwide after its December 2009 release.
Critics applauded Force Awakens, which features newcomers Daisy Ridley, John Boyega and Oscar Isaac alongside original stars Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher.
The movie directed by JJ Abrams scored a 95 per cent positive rating on review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes.
Audiences awarded an A rating in polling by survey firm CinemaScore, Disney said.
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