Less than 24 hours before midnight showings of The Force Awakens, the latest installment of George Lucas' Star Wars franchise has broken the record all-time ticket record sales for any movie during its theatrical run -- and it did this entirely during its pre-sale period.

"The Force Awakens is a genuine cultural phenomenon," said Paul Yanover, the president of the online ticketing service Fandango, on Dec. 17. "The extraordinary ticketing demand is truly unprecedented. It is Fandango's top-selling movie of all time, even before it has hit theater screens. It's great to see that all fans can enjoy the Star Wars experience, as our theater partners continue to add new screens and new showtimes every day." 

According to Deadline, industry sources confirmed that the movie is expected to rake in $100 million in presale tickets worldwide from all purchasing services.

Lucasfilm and Disney, the studio's parent company, are overjoyed at the promising sales, especially in light of breaking the ticketing record, which has previously been held by Jurassic World, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Avengers: Age of Ultron and The Hunger Games. 

"We are obviously very encouraged by the record-breaking presales for Star Wars: The Force Awakens," stated Disney's EVP of theatrical distribution Dave Hollis.

"[T]here are literally millions of tickets available for this weekend, and exhibitors have a lot of flexibility in terms of capacity and increasing the number of shows based on demand," he added. 

Fandango also released some stats that show that 65 percent of 1,000 Star Wars fans stated in an issued survey that they intend to see the movie in theaters during the holidays. Of those polled, 63 percent plan to see it more than once. 

Star Wars: The Force Awakens will be released nationwide Friday, Dec. 18.

Via: Deadline