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 on Monday that it had sold 10 million units of its new and bigger iPhones over the weekend, up from the nine 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, Calif.