--- description: Star Wars: The Force Awakens earned more than $120 million Friday, destroying opening day box office records. title: Star Wars: 'The Force Awakens' Breaks Opening Day Record image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta4ba6ffc0f6fe9c3/698876333c16398eba45b45d/star-wars-opening-weekend-box-office.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [movies](/tag/movies/) ## movies Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Star Wars: 'The Force Awakens' Breaks Opening Day Record  by [Justin Worland](/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Senior Correspondent Dec 19, 2015 6:03 PM CUT  Fans dressed as Star Wars characters pose for a photograph in Tokyo, Japan on Friday, Dec. 18. Fans dressed as Star Wars characters pose for a photograph in Tokyo, Japan on Friday, Dec. 18.Tomohiro Ohsumi—Bloomberg via Getty Images  by [Justin Worland](/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Senior Correspondent Dec 19, 2015 6:03 PM CUT _Star Wars: The Force Awakens_ earned more than $120 million Friday, easily [breaking previous opening day box office records.](http://www.ew.com/article/2015/12/19/star-wars-force-awakens-box-office-opening-day-record "undefined") The new movie’s weekend haul tops the former record holder, _Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2,_ which earned $91.1 million on its first day, [_Entertainment Weekly_](http://www.ew.com/article/2015/12/19/star-wars-force-awakens-box-office-opening-day-record "undefined")reports. _The Force Awakens_ is expected to earn as much $250 million during its opening weekend. The latest installment of the franchise was always expected to perform well at the box office, but has benefited from generally positive reviews in recent weeks. \[[EW](http://www.ew.com/article/2015/12/19/star-wars-force-awakens-box-office-opening-day-record "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4156046/force-awakens-box-office/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4156046/force-awakens-box-office/"},"headline":"Star Wars: 'The Force Awakens' Breaks Opening Day Record","datePublished":"2015-12-19T18:03:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T13:31:12.007Z","description":"The movie is expected to earn as much $250 million during its opening weekend","url":"https://time.com/4156046/force-awakens-box-office/","keywords":["movies"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta4ba6ffc0f6fe9c3/698876333c16398eba45b45d/star-wars-opening-weekend-box-office.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta4ba6ffc0f6fe9c3/698876333c16398eba45b45d/star-wars-opening-weekend-box-office.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Star Wars opening weekend box office","caption":"Star Wars opening weekend box office","creditText":"Tomohiro Ohsumi—Bloomberg via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4156046/force-awakens-box-office/","name":"Star Wars: 'The Force Awakens' Breaks Opening Day Record"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Photographing TIME's Star Wars Cover","description":"For the latest issue of TIME, Marco Grob photographed the cast members of","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/KXrQmNTF/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-12-03T11:59:55.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/KXrQmNTF.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4156046/force-awakens-box-office/","duration":"PT3M31S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4156046/force-awakens-box-office/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```