What is with Entertainment Weekly?:
So now what? Just as it was hard to predict The Force Awakens’ opening weekend, it’s also hard to predict what it’ll do from here. Because of the holidays, movies opening in December usually see a smaller debut but much, much bigger multiples. A December opening like this is unheard of (the previous December record was held by The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which debuted to $84.6 million). But movies like Avatar, which only opened to $77 million in 2009, went on to make almost $750 million domestically, making it the biggest movie of all time. We’ll have to see what happens over the next few weeks and whether The Force Awakens can not only score a big opening, but a big final total, too. [ Emphasis added ]
Are they kidding? It's not hard to predict. The pre-sale tickets sold out immediately. Everyone I knew who was a Star Wars fan (and even those who don't identify that way) was itching to see the film. Right now—during opening weekend—I have a lot of friends who have seen the film multiple times and have plans to see it more times still.
After three horrible prequels (yes, they were horrible!), people are looking for just at least a passably average sequel now, and they got something half-way decent (some people are saying amazing, but I'll respectfully disagree), so they're going to town. The Force Awakens will continue to break records. We don't have to see if it will "score... a big final total." We just have to wait to see how big the big final total is.