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

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.