Force Awakens Smashes Domestic Box-Office Record

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is continuing to cut through box-office records like a light saber through butter and is now North America's highest-grossing movie ever. Disney says that on Wednesday afternoon, just 20 days after its release, the movie passed the $760.5 million record set by Avatar, which overtook Titanic's record in 2010, the Wall Street Journal reports. The next record to beat will be Avatar's $2.78 billion global gross, the Journal notes. The Force Awakens currently has a global gross of around $1.6 billion—and it hasn't opened in China yet.

The Force Awakens has taken in more dollars than any film in American history, but the story is different when inflation is taken into account, NBC News reports. Adjusting for inflation, Gone With the Wind—released in 1939, when movie tickets cost less than a quarter—is still the highest-grossing movie, with a total take of $1.7 billion. The first Star Wars movie is in second place on the inflation-adjusted chart with a lifetime gross of $1.5 billion. The Force Awakens hasn't cracked the top 20 in that chart yet, though it's rapidly closing in on Raiders of the Lost Ark, which is No. 20, the Journal notes. (The movie has also been playing in space.)