Star Wars shatters ticket sales records

“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” has established a new record, bypassing “The Hunger Games” to move the most tickets in its first day on sale, Fandango reports. It didn't just surpass that picture, but shattered its benchmark, outselling “The Hunger Games” eight times over.

There are already sellouts, particularly in Imax screenings, and to meet the demand, movie theatres are continually adding show times, the online ticketer reports. Its presales also broke every Imax record, generating over $6.5 million. The film eclipsed “The Dark Knight Rises”, “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” and “Avengers”, which each earned around $1 million in presales.

MovieTickets.com did not release any data, but “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” is the top-selling film on its site. Interest in the film was so intense that both MovieTickets.com and Fandango reportedly crashed for some users.

The film is intended to kick off another trilogy of pictures and brings back cast members from the first film, such as Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher, along with new stars Adam Driver, John Boyega and Daisy Ridley. JJ Abrams directs the film.

Source: Variety