Children dressed as Jedi knights participate in an event held for the release of the film Star Wars: The Force Awakens at a movie theatre in San Salvador, El Salvador.
Reuters/AFP
Washington
An Australian couple got married on Thursday as they waited in line for the first US public showings of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, while movie theatres around the country held marathons of the previous films in the franchise.
Caroline Ritter, 34, a truck driver, and firefighter Andrew Porters, 29, were among about 100 die-hard fans who camped outside Hollywood’s Chinese Theatre since December 5 for the opening of The Force Awakens.
Ritter was walked down the aisle by another fan, dressed as Darth Vader, and a violinist played the Star Wars theme music as the couple exchanged vows. They plan to celebrate by seeing the movie afterward.
Online ticket seller Fandango said on Thursday that the new movie, which has received glowing reviews, has already broken its record for the most tickets sold for any film’s entire theatrical run.
“It is Fandango’s top-selling movie of all time, even before it has even hit theatre screens,” said Fandango president Paul Yanover.
But movie studio Walt Disney Company says millions of tickets are still available this weekend as theatres add capacity to meet demand.
At the first set of screenings on Thursday at Universal City, near Hollywood, fans were dressed in characters ranging from Jedi knights to Stormtroopers.
Carol Vasquez, 24, from South Gate, California, who came in costume, said she was excited to see the return of Luke Skywalker and Han Solo.
“It’s something so incredible that I can’t even describe. It’s like family, this is family here right now,” she said.
In San Antonio, Texas, several dozen fans stood in line at dawn on Thursday to watch a 16-hour marathon of the first six movies in the Star Wars franchise to set the mood for seeing The Force Awakens later in the day.
“Part of it is like the mythology of it, the religious aspect of it,” fan Matt Shavers said. The storytelling is so amazing. It’s gorgeous. It’s the greatest saga ever written.”
Although The Force Awakens has several strong female characters and marketing for the movie has been directed at women more than ever, some 68% of those buying tickets in advance are male and the majority are people over the age of 30, according to data from Movietickets.com.
The Force Awakens is expected to take some $200mn at the North American box office over its opening weekend, according to box office analysts, making it one of the biggest openings of all time.
Industry experts said yesterday that Star Wars: The Force Awakens has already set a new opening night record in the US and Canada, raking in $57mn.
“This represents a new record for the industry and portends a massive and potentially record-breaking opening day and weekend for the film,” said Paul Dergarabedian, of box office tracker Rentrak.
The previous opening night record of $43.5mn was set by Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 in 2011.
The Harry Potter film also holds the all-time record for opening day at $91mn.
The seventh Star Wars movie has also smashed records overseas, where it opened in many markets before the United States, according to industry watchers.
Variety magazine said Britain led the way with $14.4mn, followed by France’s two-day total of $7.8mn and Germany with $7.1mn.
The Force Awakens picks up the intergalactic story of good versus evil 30 years on from The Return of the Jedi, the finale of the original trilogy.
