Star Wars: The Force Awakens Has Third Highest Opening Day in China Box Office History

and the colossal Furious 7 opening day of $68 million. Final numbers may be slightly [...]

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(Photo: Lucasfilm)

While some analysts were remaining conservative on the estimates for China, things are looking up for Star Wars: The Force Awakens in the second-largest box office in the world. The film opened there, today, to the tune of an estimated $32.1 million, according to ChinaBoxOffice. That's the third-highest single-day gross in Chinese history, behind only Avengers: Age of Ultron ($33 million) and the colossal Furious 7 opening day of $68 million. Final numbers may be slightly higher.

Furious 7 was obviously China's #1 grosser last year, then, pulling in $390.9 million in its run there. The comparable start to Age of Ultron is a great thing for Force, as that movie finished with $240.1 million from China, a significant chunk of its $946 million overall overseas haul.

For context, The Force Awakens already had $821.3 million in international gross as of Friday, before even opening in China. If it can pull in a similar total in its run there to Ultron, plus additional contributions from the rest of the markets, that would put it well above a billion dollars in the worldwide market alone. At over $800 million so far in domestic gross, suddenly that $2 billion worldwide total looks much closer.

The final trailer for Force had a special premiere in China to drum up support there, where Star Wars is much less of a name brand. The trailer was projected on the Great Wall, while First Order stormtroopers lined the top of the monument.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens so far holds over 30 box office records, including the highest domestic gross in history.

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