For Disney, the premiere, which overflowed from the Dolby to two adjacent theaters, the TCL Chinese and the El Capitan, was an overt celebration of its 2012 decision to get into the “Star Wars” business. Disney, which paid $4 billion for Lucasfilm, will collect an estimated $2.5 billion in global ticket sales for “The Force Awakens,” with related merchandise generating $5 billion over the next year.

Four more “Star Wars”-themed movies are on the way by 2020.

Costing roughly $350 million to make and market worldwide, “The Force Awakens” will begin playing in previews on Thursday night in the United States and Canada, with more than 4,100 American theaters lined up to show the movie over the weekend. About 3,300 of those theaters will offer 3-D screenings.

“The Force Awakens,” which received a PG-13 rating, will begin its international run on Wednesday in France, Italy and nine other countries. Cinemas in Britain, Germany, Russia, Brazil and 14 additional territories, including Hong Kong, will begin playing the film on Thursday, with all other major markets — except mainland China, where “The Force Awakens” opens on Jan. 9 — following over the weekend.

Since the collapse of the DVD market in 2007, movie premieres have become more austere affairs. But there was a time when premieres as ostentatious as “The Force Awakens” event were relatively common. Universal Pictures took over 38 theaters in the Times Square area in 2005 for its “King Kong” premiere; Disney unveiled “Pearl Harbor” in 2001 on an aircraft carrier in Hawaii, erecting grandstand seating on the flight deck.