Friday, December 18th, means one thing for most people: The new Star Wars film, The Force Awakens, is out. Many, however, saw film on Thursday because of early previewing passes. How many? Enough to shatter the previous record for top grossing films on a preview night with an astronomical  $57 million in ticket sales.

The excitement has been building since the announcement was of the series regeneration was made over two years ago.

During a Monday Night Football game on ESPN,  the first trailer for the new film was broadcast for the first time. That night, avid fans crashed the site of movie ticket vendor, Fandango.

This Star Wars broke the record for most movie tickets sold. In fact it shattered it. The Hunger Games in 2012 held the record, but Star Wars broke it by eight times. That is right, eight.

The Star Wars franchise has three movies ranked in the top 15 grossing films of all time.

Senior Jordan Claveria was one of the lucky few to see the movie before most.

“It was all that I expected, plus a hundred,” said Claveria. “I am a huge fan, so I had big expectations, and (this movie) surpassed them by a lot.”

Claveria wouldn’t say much more to preserve the thrill and surprise factor of the movie.

Senior Ross Collins also saw it on Thursday.

“It is one of those movies where I will see it in theaters at least twice,” said Ross. “It was also cool to see all different types of people coming together to watch this spectacular movie.”

It seems that this movie isn’t something that you should see if you have time. It is something you need to make time to see.