Sith continues breaking records

Ewan McGregor and Natalie Portman are in the new Star Wars film

The final Star Wars film, Revenge of the Sith, has scored the most successful film opening in UK cinema history, making £14m in four days.

The conclusion to the sci-fi saga took almost 10 times as much as its nearest rival - Jennifer Lopez's romantic comedy Monster-In-Law - last weekend.

Worldwide, the film has taken more than $300m (£163.5m) since opening at one minute past midnight on Thursday.

Its release has also broken three Guinness World records.

The film's four-day haul of £14.3m comfortably surpassed the previous record of £11.4m made by its 2002 predecessor, Attack of the Clones, in its first four days of release.

UK BOX OFFICE CHART 1. Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, £10.7m 2. Monster-in-Law (above), £1.1m 3. Kingdom of Heaven, £0.6m 4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, £0.5m 5. The Interpreter, £0.2m Friday-Sunday. Source: Screen International

It also broke the record for highest Friday-to-Sunday takings with £10.7m, beating the £10.6m Shrek 2 made over the same period last summer.

Few films opened in direct competition with Star Wars, meaning independent drama Mysterious Skin was the next highest UK new entry at number 15.

According to Robert Mitchell, box office analyst at Screen International, George Lucas' film is on course to become the first movie to make $500m (£273m) around the world in a single week.

It has already broken three Guinness World records.

It took £27,395,847 on its release in the US on 19 May, compared to £26.27m for The Matrix Reloaded.

The Star Wars blockbuster has broke the record for largest simultaneous premiere, being simultaneously released in a record 115 countries on 19 May.

Revenge of the Sith was also given the largest print run of any film in history by 20th Century Fox with 9,000 sent out in the US, compared to 8,517 for The Matrix Reloaded.

The near-simultaneous global release was seen as an attempt to forestall piracy.

In Beijing, however, cheap DVD versions are freely circulating - albeit with subtitles entirely unrelated to the film's dialogue.

"We just got the DVD last night and we're selling loads," one DVD shop owner said on Monday. "Some customers fill whole plastic bags with the DVD."