The Force is definitely strong with this one. Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the eighth installment in the series, has been climbing the charts at light speed following its weekend launch. According to Disney's estimates, the movie has earned $220 million domestically from showings between Friday and Sunday.

This puts it at the number-one movie debut for the year across America and Canada. The movie also comes in as the second biggest domestic debut of all time, second only to Star Wars: The Force Awakens from 2015.

Outside of North America, Disney says the movie has earned another $230 million which ranks it as the fifth largest opener of all time internationally. This doesn't include showings in China where the movie is set to debut next January 5th, and they represent the second biggest film market worldwide.

Lucasfilm, the studio that originally created Star Wars, was acquired by Disney for roughly $4 billion in 2012. Distribution chief Dave Hollis said that the "weekend that we're in is a byproduct of the foresight and vision from our CEO Bob Iger to bring Lucasfilm into the fold" and that "you can't help but be excited about the possibilities" of other things being added in the future.

Director Rian Johnson is set for a repeat to write and direct Episode IX slated for December 2019, following the Han Solo spinoff movie (Solo: A Star Wars Story) coming next summer.