Disney and Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens kicked off ticket sales on Monday night, shattering records for several sites.
Fandango had a record-setting first day of pre-sales, selling eight times as many tickets as it did on the first day of sales for the previous record holder. The first Hunger Games film previously held the record for the ticket-selling site.
“Movie theaters are continually adding new show times on Fandango to meet the phenomenal demand. The enthusiasm for this year’s most anticipated movie is out of this world and we expect it to continue all the way to its debut on December 18,” said a statement from the site.
Several sites, including Fandango, experienced outages on Monday night after tickets went on sale. Tickets for the film, which is directed by J.J. Abrams, went on sale after the trailer debuted during Monday Night Football.
Presales for the Disney and Lucasfilm project broke every IMAX record as well, generating more than $6.5 million in domestic ticket sales from moviegoers purchasing tickets to see the film which will open on approximately 390 IMAX screens in North America. By comparison, Imax has never previously registered more than $1 million in pre-sales on a single day.
The Star Wars film also broke records in Europe, with the U.K.’s Vue Entertainment, the U.K.’s third-largest chain with 804 screens, revealing it sold 45,000 tickets to J.J. Abrams‘ eagerly anticipated installment of the space epic in the first 24 hours.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens, starring Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill, hits theaters in the U.S. on Dec. 18.
