REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, LONDON -- If you suspected that 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' would smash box office records when you saw the lengthy queues at your local theater, you made a pretty good guess. Disney expects the adventures of Finn, Poe and Rey to set an all-time domestic debut record with an estimated 238 million US dollars.

The previous best, this summer's Jurassic World, "only" pulled in 208.8 million US dollars. On top of that, The Force Awakens also broke several other domestic records, including the biggest single-day gross (120.5 million US dollars), biggest Thursday preview (57 million US dollars), and best December debut and multiple IMAX records.

Worldwide, it's estimated to rake in 517 million US dollars over its first five days -- and that 4 billion US dollars Lucasfilm purchase suddenly seems like the bargain of the century.

Some international records tumbled, too, such as the biggest opening weekends in Australia (18.9 million US dollars), Germany (27.3 million US dollars), Russia (12.3 million US dollars) and the UK (48.9 million US dollars).

It doesn't take much to understand why the movie succeeded, of course. You're combining one of the biggest franchises ever with one of the industry's more accomplished directors and an almost overwhelming level of hype.

It'd be surprising if the movie didn't succeed. Still, this is a watershed moment for geek culture as a whole. While there have certainly been successful sci-fi movies in the past (including this fall's The Martian), it's rare that they dominate the media landscape so completely.

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