'Star Wars' soars to new box office heights in Thursday night showings

ETX Daily Up

18 December 2015 at 7:12 am

Harrison Ford alias Han Solo in "Star Wars 7" poster

The highly-anticipated "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" brought home the box office record Thursday night, December 17, obliterating former box office record-holder "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" in 2011.

The latest episode of the "Star Wars" franchise passed the US $50 million marker for preview showings on the eve of its opening, becoming the most popular of all the episodes so far.

With these growing box-office numbers, episode VII of the saga dethrones fellow box office hits such as "The Dark Knight Rises" and "Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2" according to a report by entertainment publication The Wrap.

The "Force Awakens" takes place 30 years after "Return of the Jedi" and stars young actors Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley and John Boyega along with some of the saga's original cast members like Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill.

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