Star Wars: The Force Awakens made the jump to hyperspace in its first weekend in theaters. Ten years after the release of Revenge of the Sith, the third installment in creator George Lucas’s prequel series that began in 1999 with The Phantom Menace, director J.J. Abrams brought fans back to a galaxy far, far away where they were reunited with a host of familiar characters, and introduced to a few memorable new ones.

The biggest nod to the original trilogy was the presence of 73 year-old Harrison Ford’s Han Solo, the charming smuggler who reluctantly played a pivotal role in saving the galaxy from the Evil Empire back in 1977. Joining him on this new adventure is Carrie Fisher, reprising the role of Princess Leia. Mark Hamill, who suffered an unfortunate series of difficulties in his career and his personal life after the success of the original Star Wars films, returned to his defining role as the Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker. Even Han Solo’s hairy, seven foot tall co-pilot Chewbacca joins in for the ride and his character enjoys significantly more depth than in any other film in the series. Abrams also manages to weave a cast of new characters into a movie that pays special attention to the vocal, dedicated core of its fan base and goes to great lengths to satisfy their childhood nostalgia.

British actress Daisy Ridley plays the heroine of The Force Awakens, a young scavenger named Rey who, much like Luke Skywalker many years before her, is unwittingly thrust into the center of a war between good and evil. Joining her is fellow brit John Boyega who plays the part of Finn, a stormtrooper with a heart who also finds himself front and center in an adventure greater than he ever could have imagined. Any franchise worth its salt can’t get on without a bad guy and this is where Kylo Ren steps in. Played by Girls star Adam Driver, this masked terror threatens to destroy the fledgling republic that was born after the events in The Return of the Jedi.

The film is a hit with fans and critics alike. And it earned extremely positive reviews from The New York Times and The Guardian, among others, as well as an A- cinemascore, not to mention the monumental financial success around the world. The Force Awakens set a new record for a domestic opening with a $238 million take this weekend. It easily beat the $208.8 million benchmark set by Jurassic World this summer, and earned nearly four times more than the previous December record held by The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which opened to $84.6 million back in 2012. Force was boosted by an unprecedented $100 million in advance ticket sales in North America and earned $48 million of its global revenue from IMAX theatres, another record it took from Jurassic World. Foreign totals came out to a staggering $279 million in its foreign territories. Overseas highlights include a record $48.9 million opening in the UK, another record $27.3 million in Germany, and yet another at $22.7 million in Australia. It earned the same sum in France, where it became the number two industry opening of all time, and $11.3 million in Mexico and $9.2 million in Italy, setting records in those countries as well. So far it has a conservatively estimated global cumulative of $517 million, putting it just behind Jurassic World’s $525 million record, but those numbers could change significantly on Monday when the final figures come in. And China’s numbers are not in, as the film is not opening until January. Disney plans to release four more Star Wars films by 2020, and will likely roll out even more titles and spinoffs throughout the coming decade.

While the vast majority of the movie-going public and press spent the weekend focused on The Force Awakens, two other titles did open with a certain degree of success in North America. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip debuted to $14.4 million, and Tina Fey and Amy Poehler’s Sisters took off with a $13.3 million launch. Another giant of a film launched this weekend, this time in China, where local production Mojin: The Lost Legend took advantage of a year-end embargo on foreign films to make a very tidy $85 million in its home market.

Next weekend we’ll try to keep track of how many records Star Wars breaks, and follow the release of a very enticing stable of films in the U.S. market. Fox rolls out The Revenant and Joy, while Paramount brings us The Big Short. Warner Bros.’ is launching Pointbreak in the U.S., and the Weinstein Company is releasing Quentin Tarantino’s hotly anticipated The Hateful Eight. Happy Holidays!

Lorenzo Soria