Gists: 'Star Wars:The Force Awakens' grosses whopping $120. 5 million for opening day

Star wars:The Force Awakens grossed an estimated $120.5 million in its first day, including $57 million for Thursday night preview shows, making it the highest single day on record, according to Walt Disney Co. The tally topped the previous record holder, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows -- Part 2," which grossed $91 million from its Thursday and Friday shows in July 2011. The film has already grossed more than $250 million worldwide.

The numbers for "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" are unprecedented for a film premiering in December. The record holder for the biggest opening during the month is "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," which took in $85 million in domestic receipts in 2012.

"The Force Awakens" is expected to gross $180 million to $220 million through Sunday in its domestic opening weekend. However, those numbers began to look like conservative estimates following Thursday and Friday screenings.

At that rate, the long-awaited space epic is poised to out-earn Universal's dino reboot, "Jurassic World," which broke the record for the biggest domestic opening by selling $208.8 million in tickets last June.