Star Wars: The Force Awakens has smashed the opening day record at the UK and Ireland box office, with a truly galactic £9.6m haul.

The figure is more than £3m ahead of the previous record holder, the James Bond film Spectre, which scored £6.3m in October. A quarter of the total figure, £2.4m, came from midnight screenings after JJ Abrams’ acclaimed film opened at 12.01am on Thursday morning.

Studio Disney will now have one eye on the £103m record for highest-grossing film of all time at the UK box office, which is held by previous Bond instalment Skyfall.

The Force Awakens has been odds on to smash UK records since cinema chains reported total presales breaching 1m for the first time ever earlier this week. Since then, the space opera reboot has been buoyed by excellent reviews and huge hype created by those who have already seen the film.



Star Wars: The Force Awakens - watch the trailer Guardian

Experts at Box Office Mojo believe The Force Awakens could be on course to post a world record $575m-650m total globally over its opening weekend, with the film also likely to break Jurassic World’s $204.6m record for the biggest opening weekend in the US. The UK and Ireland’s opening weekend record of £41.3m, also held by Spectre, now looks in serious jeopardy.