Advance ticket sales for Star Wars: The Force Awakens have hit $50 million in North America, according to The Hollywood Reporter.  Advance sales opened strong after the first trailer was released last month (see “’Force Awakens’ Ticket Sales Break Records”).  The previous record for advance ticket sales was The Dark Knight Rises, at $25 million, in 2012. 

The current record for opening weekend box office is $208.8 million, held by Jurassic World (adjusted from the initially reported $204.6 million, see “’Jurassic World’ Thunders to Worldwide Record Debut”).  Many expect that The Force Awakens will exceed that total, but without the tracking info the studios assemble, there’s no way to know.  Jurassic World didn’t beat #2 The Avengers, which opened with $207 million in 2012, by a lot.   And December isn’t known for huge openings, with The Hobbit:  An Unexpected Journey the record-holder at $85 million. 

With expectations high, The Force Awakens may be seen as a loser unless it breaks every record, a daunting prospect for Disney brass. But there’s still a month of advance sales to run up the total, and Disney is pulling out all the stops to promote the film (see “New ‘Star Wars’ Spot”), with lots of tickets still to be sold.     

Lucasfilm released a new photo of Kylo Ren via Empire this week, which accompanies this article.