Latest 'Star Wars' Installment Earns $1 Billion At Box Office In Record Time

The latest “Star Wars” installment smashed another box office record this weekend, racking up more than $1 billion in worldwide ticket sales in just 12 days. “The Force Awakens” became the fastest film ever to cross that dollar mark, besting the previous 13-day record held by Universal’s “Jurassic World.”

Walt Disney Co. released sales tallies Sunday showing a $545 million take in North America to date and $546 million internationally, AFP reported. The film's fast clip does not yet reflect sales in China, where “The Force Awakens” will debut Jan. 9.

"You almost have to rewrite all the record books for this movie," Paul Dergarabedian, a box office analyst with Rentrak, told the Associated Press. "It's absolutely mind-blowing that 'Star Wars' could get to $1 billion in 12 days, and it hasn't even opened in China, the second biggest movie market in the world.”

Audience love for the seventh film in the George Lucas-created franchise could propel Christmas 2015 to become the highest-grossing weekend at the box office ever, according to Deadline, which cited weekend sales estimates of $300 million. Christmas weekend in 2009 holds the current sales record, with $269.8 million in sales.

Disney paid approximately $4 billion to acquire Lucas's Lucasfilms in 2012, adding both the "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones" franchises to its roster. At the time of the acquisition, the "Star Wars" movies, which debuted in 1977, had earned $4.54 billion in global ticket sales, Bloomberg reported.

Directed by J.J. Abrams and starring a mix of both young actors as well as original cast members like Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher, "The Force Awakens" is chasing box office records held by two James Cameron films: "Avatar," which grossed $2.8 billion worldwide, and "Titanic," which pulled in $2.2 billion globally, Box Office Mojo reported.