LOS ANGELES -- Star Wars: The Force Awakens has cleared the planet and will blow the box office record to smithereens -- and it was men, overwhelmingly, that drove what's expected to be a $250 million three-day haul.
Though The Force Awakens features Daisy Ridley as the main protagonist and was purposely more gender-balanced than previous films, men made up a whopping 64% of the North American box office, more than the average Hollywood action blockbuster. (Jurassic World, the previous opening-weekend record holder at $208 million, was split roughly 60% men/40% women and was considered a heavily male-weighted audience earlier this year.)
The Force Awakens crowd was also perhaps slightly older than may have been expected. People with access to exit polling research told Mashable that an overwhelming 67% of moviegoers were over the age of 25, while the 18-24 crowd -- a point of focus for the Star Wars marketing team -- made up only 16% of the audience.
Interestingly enough, though women are accounting for only 36% of the North American box office on The Force Awakens, they liked the film slightly more: Women gave it a perfect A+ CinemaScore rating, while men gave it an A.
The $250 million projection for The Force Awakens is particularly notable because it took place in December. Before Star Wars, the previous record holder was The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which posted an $84 million opening -- about a third of what The Force Awakens is projected to make.