娱乐英语新闻:"Star Wars: The Force Awakens" hits several box office records

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" made history in its debut this weekend by bringing the highest box office income of estimated 238 million U.S. dollars domestically and 517 million worldwide.

The production of Disney and Lucasfilm was 14 percent ahead of the previous opening weekend record of 208.8 million dollars of domestic income for "Jurassic World" this summer.

It also shattered numerous records around the world this weekend.

The film got the biggest Thursday night box office number in North America with 57 million U.S. dollars, surpassing the record of 43 million dollars for "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" in July 2011.

It smashed the biggest Friday and biggest single-day record in North America, exceeding the 91 million U.S. dollars of "Deathly Hallows 2" by 29.5 million.

"Force Awakens" became the biggest domestic opening in North America, as well as the biggest December opening both in North America and globally.

It was also the first movie to cross 100 million U.S. dollars within 24 hours after screened in theaters.

In Britain, Germany, Australia, Russia and many other countries, it scored the biggest opening weekend as well.