Twilight, director Catherine Hardwicke’s adaptation of
Stephenie Meyer’s vampire-romance novel, easily won the weekend box office with
a $70.6 mil debut gross, according to Sunday’s estimates. Fellow freshman flick Bolt and hefty
holdover Quantum of Solace, meanwhile, trailed far behind.
That huge premiere number represents achievements on many
levels for Twilight. It’s the top debut ever for a film directed by one woman (Mimi
Leder’s Deep Impact banked $41.2 mil on its initial weekend 10 years ago). It’s the 29th best first-weekend bow of all
time (falling just shy of 300’s $70.9 mil and coming in just ahead of
Transformers‘ $70.5 mil). It’s
by far the biggest opening yet for fledgling studio Summit, whose previous best bow was Never
Back Down’s $8.6 mil back in March. It stands as the fourth biggest premiere of the year — better than Quantum of
Solace’s $67.5 mil opening, better than WALL-E’s $63.1 mil, better than
Hancock’s $62.6 mil, to name a few. Last, but almost certainly not least, it’s nearly exactly
what I predicted (hooray, me!).
So it’s no surprise that the studio already announced a
sequel, New Moon. But the question for now, of course, is where Twilight, which
averaged a bloody good $20,636 in 3,419 theaters, goes from here? Not
surprisingly, girls and women comprised a whopping 75 percent of the film’s
audience, but will they continue to pack theaters as the weeks go on?
In the short term: yes. According to studio data, ticket buyers gave the movie
a nice A- grade, signaling the spread of positive word of mouth as we head into
Thanksgiving. Certainly, there will be some competition for this core crowd
from Australia and Four Christmases next week, but you can also assume that Twilight will be
able to build on its super-smashing start.
Second place went to Quantum of Solace, which banked $27.4
mil (again, almost exactly as I predicted). That’s a big 59 percent drop from the
James Bond flick’s big bow last time around. On
the bright side, the Daniel Craig movie became the year’s 20th release to cross
the $100 mil mark domestically. It has a 10-day sum of $109.5 mil in the U.S. and Canada, and it has
brought in some $418 mil worldwide to date.
Next up: Bolt (No. 3), which underperformed perhaps ever so
slightly with $27 mil (way below my prognostication, alas). Nonetheless, that’s
a good number for a non-Pixar animated movie that could have gotten
swallowed up by stiff competition. And unlike Twilight, Bolt has no natural
rivals at the box office in the near future. Combine that fact with the
A- CinemaScore review it drew from a “four quadrant” crowd filled
with people of all ages and genders, and its financial future looks secure.
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
(No. 4 with $16 mil) and Role Models (No. 5 with $7.2 mil) rounded out a
stellar top five. And for the third straight weekend, the multiplex housed a
$60 mil-plus grosser, the first time that’s ever happened outside of summer.
Thus, the overall box office got a nice 2 percent bump over the same
frame a year ago (when Enchanted and This Christmas led the way). All of which
portends nice things to come as the most wonderful time of the year gets
underway.
More ‘Twilight’ and Box Office News:
EW.com’s Twilight Central
Box Office Preview: Twilight to suck up buckets of blood…and big bucks
Twilight: The EW review
Quantum of Solace Stirs up a Win
Second place went to Quantum of Solace, which banked $27.4mil (again, almost exactly as I predicted). That’s a big 59 percent drop from theJames Bond flick’s big bow last time around. Onthe bright side, the Daniel Craig movie became the year’s 20th release to crossthe $100 mil mark domestically. It has a 10-day sum of $109.5 mil in the U.S. and Canada, and it hasbrought in some $418 mil worldwide to date.
Next up: Bolt (No. 3), which underperformed perhaps ever soslightly with $27 mil (way below my prognostication, alas). Nonetheless, that’sa good number for a non-Pixar animated movie that could have gottenswallowed up by stiff competition. And unlike Twilight, Bolt has no naturalrivals at the box office in the near future. Combine that fact with theA- CinemaScore review it drew from a "four quadrant" crowd filledwith people of all ages and genders, and its financial future looks secure.
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa(No. 4 with $16 mil) and Role Models (No. 5 with $7.2 mil) rounded out astellar top five. And for the third straight weekend, the multiplex housed a$60 mil-plus grosser, the first time that’s ever happened outside of summer.
Thus, the overall box office got a nice 2 percent bump over the sameframe a year ago (when Enchanted and This Christmas led the way). All of whichportends nice things to come as the most wonderful time of the year getsunderway.
More ‘Twilight’ and Box Office News:
EW.com’s Twilight Central
Box Office Preview: Twilight to suck up buckets of blood…and big bucks
Twilight: The EW review
Quantum of Solace Stirs up a Win
Comments (1-30) of 172 Add your comment
O.K, twilight, you’ve shocked everyone. But one major thing the studio needs to worry about: It’s enormous friday take of nearly 36 million was over HALF of its opening weekend. To put in perspective, Harry Potter 4, which opened on a similar pre-thanksgiving weekend on 2005, made 40 million on its first friday, only 39% of its opening weekend of 102 million, while Twilights Friday was 51%. And its huge 41% tumble to saturdays 21 million indicates how the movie is already losing its momentum. It will probably be teh #1 movie next weekend too, but expect it to make around 35 million, a 50% tumble when most movies will end up having very small declines. Only time will tell if it will break the 200 million mark– but that would mean it will need very strong legs. And as for Bolt, 27 million is not bad at all, especially going into thanksgiving. I’m sure it will hold up well now that Madagascar is losing its momentum. Bond will hold better next weekned– clearly the Word of mouth hurt it.
Great, so now that it’s out and had a big weekend, can EW please move on and stop talking about it? Or are you guys going to immediately launch into the New Moon countdown (gag me)?
I think the real test will be how it does next weekend. Does it have legs?
To be honest, Bradd Bradd, I was surprised Joshua didn’t mention the huge dropoff. Based on estimates, attendance dropped 41% on Saturday and another 35% on Sunday. That doesn’t sound good to me.
I love how you mention the big box office take, and then sidestep the glaring fact that the numbers tumbled BIG as the weekend went on. My hypothesis seems to be supported by numbers — that the diehards would all see it at midnight and/or on Friday and it would plummet from there. I don’t expect word of mouth to be kind to it.
Bradd, I actually see Twilight and Bolt going opposite directions next week. Bolt had a weaker opening weekend, but should be helped by A) positive word of mouth and B) the big family-centric Thanksgiving weekend. I think poor word of mouth is really going to hurt Twilight (I for one was extremely disappointed given the hype). $200 million or even $150 million doesn’t sound like a lot, but it needs to stay strong after this opening weekend, and I just don’t think it can. There are too many holiday movies coming up and too many people flat-out hated it. Just my two cents.
The reason the movies are seeing such a big bump in such a tough economic time is because people want to check out of reality and into another world for a few hours. That’s why Twilight has a huge following. Its easy to envelope yourself into a near realistic but somewhat ideal and exciting world. I still plan to go see it for the second time later this week. More profits in a down time.
Well, we are looking at a thanksgiving break with lots of high school and middle school kids with a lot of extra time on their hands…So I expect the movie to continue to do well, since that their built in audience often goes to see movies they like more than once.
I actually don’t expect much of a drop off.
And I’ve heard quite a bit of positive word of mouth actually…I went to see it this weekend and I thought it was OK at best, but the kids sitting next to me in the theater loved it and vowed to see it over and over again.
$70 mil this weekend, about 20 next weekend. Topping out at around $210 mil when it’s said and done.
Wow. This horrible movie made that much? Shows that America will buy in anything that’s a fad, even if it’s bad.
I’m going to see it either next weekend or the following one. I wanted to wait until the majority of the squeeling crowd was out of the way (no offense Twilight-ians). I’m in the middle of reading the first book now, so I hope that doesn’t cloud the movie experience too much.
After having read fan reviews of the movie w/r/t special effects and whatnot, i hope that the studios will sink a little more dough into the franchise for the next few films (it seems safe to assume they will milk this cash cow). They could really expand their audience if they take the next films a little more seriously than it has been reported they put into the first one. I mean, who doesn’t love a vampire film anyway?
This could work studio execs, and would probably entice more ‘repeat viewer’ sales. Really I’m just surprised that it appears they may have limited their audience to fans of the book. There is no reason why they could not have hooked in more guys with this kind of storyline.
Terrible movie. I walked out. For morons.
With all those teenaged girls in the theater for this movie, the theater seats must now smell worse than after a Melissa Etheridge concert.
For all of you people who actually didn’t like Twilight: Have you read the books? If not, I can understand where you are coming from. You can interpret Twilight on three different scales.
One: You’ve never read the books before. I think that if you haven’t read the books, then you cannot truly appreciate the depth of emotions that scale through the movie. A lot of scenes could be considered boring if you had not known what the intention of said scene was.
Two: You’ve read the books. In this case, you understand the emotions that Bella is thinking. You understand what those awkward moments are in the film that some who haven’t read the books may not have comprehended.
Three: You’ve read the books, and the part of Midnight Sun. In this case, you can truly appreciate the film. You can appreciate those awkward moments, because you know EXACTLY what the characters are thinking, and why those moments are so special.
Everybody I know who has seen Twilight is definitely recommending it to friends and family. I will be back to see it next weekend and probably the weekend after.
Twilight is like the Back Street Boys/N Sync of Movies, teenage girls can’t help but make a bad product a hit.
I’ve seen it twice already, and I’ll probably see it again this weekend. It did well… who cares? I don’t get why everyone gets so mad about it. What’s the big deal if people enjoyed it? I just don’t get the disdain.
We LOVED the movie!!
It’s not just for teenage girls either. I saw all different ages and everyone seemed to be having fun. Of course it’s not like the book! Everyone has their own visual of the places and people and no two people have the same idea’s! Also it can’t alll be squeezed into 2 hrs or less can’t it? No and yet it was just as interesting as the book. For a small budget they did a really good job! They deserve alot of credit for how well it turned out with everyone doing their own stunts, etc…I laughed and swooned and I got weepy and I had a wonderul time as did my husband and my friend. We are obviously not teen’s and we really enjoyed it. I think it’s sad how many people are trying to trash this movie when there are so many people who knew it wouldn’t be EXACTLY like the book and still had a great time. I’m grateful that the movie has now made back all the money that was spent on it (and given generously to the town of Fork’s, Wa.)and then some. It was a great Friday : )
Exactly Jessica!
Why can’t people just let us enjoy it without all this anger? Jeezz, these people need to get a life! I loved it, my sister’s loved it and my friends too. We had alot of fun and we are going back to see it again. It’s making alot of money so SOMEBODY likes it! Thank you to all the people who had fun and want to let other’s know without all the hatred. It’s nice to see all the positivity! GO SEE THIS MOVIE!! And just have fun! We are going as much as we can and we have alot of friends going again too. Let’s Rock The Box Office! Woo-Hoo!!
Went to see it this afternoon. The beginning was a little slow…and painful at times to watch. Picked up in the middle and the acting seemed to improve some. The theatre I was at was only 3/4 full…was expecting it to be sold out. This could have been really huge, but I think there will be a big drop off in numbers next weekend. My son did like it by the way, and now wants to read the books.
Thanks Nathan you just made my day!!
Yeah! The movie is alot of fun and obviously alot of people like it!
I can’t wait to see it again!
I just got back from seeing it today at noon. The theater was only about 1/3 full, and to my surprise there was a couple in their 60s right in front of me. Certainly doesn’t fit the demographic, huh.
I was pleasantly surprised. All the cheesiest parts had already been leaked online and the pace of the movie was pretty than the book – leaving out about 200 pages of “OMG Edward is such a godlike creature!” no doubt saved a lot of time.
I’ll probably go see the movie one more time in theaters, after I see Australia this coming weekend with my mom.
Just got back from the movie with my 11 year old and her friend ( their 2nd time seeing it), my 18 year old, and my friend ( we are in our 40s). I was expecting a cheesefest because of what I read here, but we all loved it. We all read the book at this time last year so maybe we weren’t expecting as much as people who just read it were. I thought it was very true to the book, I won’t spoil it but they left out something regarding Jasper, not a big deal though. I have viewed many fan trailers on youtube, so I can see where people wanted diffferent actors playing the parts, but I thought this cast was superb. Cannot wait for New Moon. will probably see this again.
I’m going to see the movie tomorrow. I loved all of the books and I’m prepared for the film to not do the book justice the same way HP & The Order of the Phoenix was an insult to the book but I was still happy there was a film at all.
I guess it’s odd to hear numbers when on average the normal intake for b films Summit makes typically is around maybe 20-60 mil. They made that the first weekend. I plan to see it a few more times. I think the key thing is, it was never expected to make this much and it has already… the movie paid for its self already.
I was worried about non-readers take on the movie, and my friend really liked it. She thought it was actually a better pace then the first book, which she thought dragged a bit.
I guess I liked it, and a bunch of others did too.. so I plan to enjoy it. I’m sorry you to all those who didn’t. Maybe number two will bring you some joy.
The worst movie I have seen this year, why does the girl that plays bella have to shake her head every times she talks and some 13 year old kid with a keyboard must have done the music it was freaking awful. My wife and I both read the books which are just ok (those of you who compare them to Harry Potter need a labotomy)and the movie was just a terrible adaption of a book that is only just ok to begin with. Save the money and save 2 hours of your life.
For those of you that say this movie was terrible in any way, you are highly mistaken. This movie was a brilliant adaptation of the book considering that they have to take into play the timeslot they wanted for the movie. This movie was amazing and quite possibly my favorite movie. The director took a marvelous book and turned it into a movie that was beyond my expectations. I didn’t think it was possible to make this book into a movie, since the books are the best thing I have ever read. I think that they did a fantastic job with this movie.
omg!!!!!!!!!!!that was the best movie ever!!i’m gonna go see it at least 5 more times.
wat
To Andrew:
You and your wife are dorks. Stop reading Harry Potter and other material directed to other, notably younger demographics, and try boning each other. That’s what adults do. Alas, you likely had never known the touch of a woman before you met her. You are the scourge of our society, and I honestly believe that you should be neutered to protect our society from the social ravaging that would be your potential offspring. Please just die. Please.