Latest Star Wars rakes in $33m in China debut

Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the latest episode of the legendary science-fiction movie series, earned more than $33 million in its Saturday debut in China, ranking third in history only after Furious 7 and Avengers: Age of Ultron.

For the entire weekend, the movie easily got Chinese viewers to shell out about $53 million, according to Walt Disney Co, which owns the film.

Disney said it hoped to see China, the world's second-largest box office market, help this episode break the global record of $2.7 billion set by Avatar in 2010, Bloomberg reported.