The film opened big on Thursday with a $50 million gross, breaking the one day total record previously held by Shrek 2 at $44.8 million. George Lucas and Fox executives should be smiling about breaking the four-day record previous held by The Matrix Reloaded ($134.3 million) by over $24 million.

Sith also far outsold its two predecessors by a healthy margin. Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones enjoyed an $80 million opening weekend in 2002 and Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace debuted with $64.8 million in 1999.

Last week's top film, Monster-in-Law, landed in second place with an estimated $14.4 million while Will Ferrell's "Kicking & Screaming" came in third with $10.5 million. The critically acclaimed Crash earned an additional $5.5 million this weekend and the top 5 was rounded out by Jet Li's latest Unleashed, which earned $3.8 million over the weekend.