Star Wars: The Last Jedi to become highest opening weekend grossing movie of 2017

Star Wars: The Last Jedi might have fallen short of beating Force Awakens but the Disney movie's Friday and Saturday collections project that the movie is set to break Beauty and The Beast's opening weekend box office collections and become the highest grosser of 2017.

The Rian Johnson directorial opened to an estimated $104 million to $105 million domestically and collected another $63.6 million on Saturday. The eighth Star Wars movie is already close to breaking Beauty and the Beast's $170 million record and is eyeing to end its opening weekend with a massive $215 million or more by Sunday night, Box Office Mojo reports.

Also Read: Star Wars' Darth Vader on unicycle and blowing bagpipes in flames is the most bizarre tribute to the movie! [VIDEO] 

According to Deadline, the film's Saturday total stands the fourth best ever collections of all time. Jurassic World tops with $69.6 million; The Avengers stands second with $69.55 million, and Star Wars: Force Awakens' $68.3 million tops The Last Jedi.

While these are jaw-dropping numbers, Forbes' Scott Mendelson is disappointed that the movie couldn't surpass Force Awakens. The previous Star Wars movie released on the same weekend as The Last Jedi and earned a massive $119 million on Friday (including a record-best of $57 million through Thursday previews), Forbes reported.

Force Awakens holds the record of the highest opening weekend ever with $247.9 million on the domestic front and earned $2.1 billion by the end of its run. The Last Jedi is already above Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which opened to $155.1 million domestically and grossed $1.1 billion.

As for global box office report, The Last Jedi opened in a few markets on Wednesday, giving the Star Wars movie a good head-start. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the movie opened at the number 1 spot in almost all international markets (except Turkey and Korea), and has earned an estimated $60.8 million. THR projects an estimate of $105.8 million will be added to its worldwide total by the end of Sunday.

The eighth instalment is projected to earn $425 million-plus by the end of its first weekend, securing a place among the five best worldwide openings of all time.