Star Wars: The Force Awakens is widely predicted to become one of the highest grossing films of all time, with some experts suggesting that box-office revenues in excess of the current record, Avatar’s $2.78bn, are within its reach. Now, researchers have revealed who will be buying the tickets.

According to the cinema marketing data firm Movio Media, the average purchaser of an advance ticket for JJ Abrams’s space opera in the US is a 34-year-old male. And 70% of ticket holders are men between the ages of 18 and 49. According to Movio Media, the average advance ticket holder is a regular cinemagoer who usually travels to see big-budget fantasies such as Jurassic World or Avengers: Age of Ultron on opening night, and spends 2.6 times more than the national average amount on watching movies.

Tickets for Star Wars: The Force Awakens went on sale last week, following the debut of the film’s final trailer on 19 October. Records were broken on both sides of the Atlantic, with the US retailer Fandango reporting advance ticket sales eight times higher than for any other film on its first day of release, and the studio Disney claiming that more than 200,000 tickets were sold in 24 hours in the UK. The trailer was viewed 112m times in its first day online.

Previous US research had suggested The Force Awakens might struggle to attract female filmgoers: consumer tracking company Piedmont Media Research indicated last month that The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 is more eagerly anticipated by filmgoers than Abrams’ film, in part due to the space epic scoring lower in polls of women than the young adult dystopian film.

The top two films of all time at the global box office, Avatar and Titanic, both feature a healthy dose of romance, an ingredient traditionally (if stereotypically) regarded as key to attracting female filmgoers. The original Star Wars trilogy had a love affair between Harrison Ford’s Han Solo and Carrie Fisher’s Princess Leia at its heart, but trailers for The Force Awakens have not played up a romantic angle.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens opens in US cinemas on 18 December, a day after the film’s UK release.