Apple’s investors obsess over early iPhone sales like Hollywood producers tracking opening ticket sales for a blockbuster movie.

A big weekend is usually a healthy predictor of consumer demand for the holiday season — not just for Apple, but for the entire consumer electronics industry.

Those Apple watchers can rest easy because the company’s new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are no bust. Apple said Monday that it had sold 10 million units of its new and bigger iPhones over the weekend, up from the 9 million iPhones it sold last year in the first weekend of sales for the previous generation of iPhones.

The iPhone is still Apple’s biggest cash cow, accounting for about 70 percent of its profit. So early sales can help predict quarterly or even annual results for the company, based in Cupertino, California.

Now the momentum from the new iPhones’ strong opening weekend is expected to help carry Apple to record sales this holiday quarter. Maynard Um, a senior research analyst for Wells Fargo, predicts Apple will sell about 58 million iPhones in the holiday quarter, up from 51 million in that period a year ago. Toni Sacconaghi, a financial analyst for Sanford C. Bernstein, estimates Apple will sell 55 million to 60 million iPhones in the holiday season.

The weekend iPhone sales, which were a record for Apple, were on the upper end of financial analysts’ predictions, which ranged from 6.5 million to the “low teens” of millions of units.

The early results also reflect consumer demand for bigger phone screens. Both new iPhones have much larger screens than the 4 inches of earlier versions: the iPhone 6’s screen is 4.7 inches diagonal and the 6 Plus is 5.5 inches diagonal.

As is typical with Apple product introductions, some customers stayed up late to order the new iPhones online while others slept in garbage bags outside Apple Stores.