I hate to dip into talking about Star Wars box office for the second day in a row… but something this big deserves comment.

All day today, everywhere I’ve went there’s only one question I’ve heard everyone asking each other, “Have you seen Star Wars yet?” I got my hair cut this afternoon, and the heavy-set, middle-aged hair cutter asked it. Two older guys standing at opposite pumps at the gas station were discussing it. A group three cubicles over from me were talking about it. People are going to see it. A lot of them already have. Here’s the proof:

Star Wars Episode III :Revenge of the Sith recorded the biggest single day box office take ever Thursday by raking in a grand total $50 million dollars. Shrek 2 is next closest to that record with $44 million, but that’s not even very close. Making nearly $20 million just in midnight showings helped, but that still means it made $30 million bucks Thursday evening and afternoon as well. That’s more money than last week’s number one made all weekend. Heck, the number one’s for the past two weekends added together don’t even touch $50 million, but then that’s probably because those movies sucked.

And people aren’t done going. Those who’ve seen it are gearing up for viewing number two, those who haven’t will be pouring into theaters this weekend. The 95 million dollar weekend predictions for this thing may have been way off. It’s a juggernaut, and deservedly so. People have been waiting for good Star Wars and it’s finally shown up. George Lucas is officially Scrooge McDuck. Go take a swim chief. We’ll see you on Sunday night with some final totals.