Summit Entertainment is howling with delight. The Twilight Saga: New Moon has set a new record for opening midnight shows, earning an estimated $26.3 million. The figure passes Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’s midnight take of $22.2 million this past summer. Screening in 3,514 theaters, the film grossed a per-theater average of $7,476. And if that’s not enough, Summit’s one-night re-issue of Twilight last night earned $1.3 million in 2,057 theaters. It’s a remarkable figure considering the movie screened only at 9 p.m. Thursday night. It’s safe to say the Chris Weitz-directed film is going to be a monster hit this weekend.
More ‘New Moon’ box office:
Box-office preview: Can ‘New Moon’ cross $100 million?
‘New Moon’ ticket pre-sales breaking records
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Damn…take that fanboys =)
Yeah,all the girlies had to go see it last night so it wouldn’t interfere with their shopping this weekend.
12 year old American girls disgust me. But seriously…everyone knew this would happen. It’s not a surprise. Records are made to be broken. I’m sure Deathly Hallows and Batman 3 will set new records and then those will eventually be broken too…hopefully NOT by a crappy, glittering vampire movie.
Amen to that. I’m not as bothered by the movies themselves, as I am with all the coverage and hyper. WAAAAAYY TOO MUCH! EVERYWHERE I GO >;/
I was at the theater at midnight last night to watch New Moon and am neither a 12 year old girl, nor a “girlie who can’t wait to go shopping”. In fact, I’m a 28 year old attorney and was there with 7 other equally intelligent and mature girls. We went to see the movie for the same reason JackBauerEnthusiast probably watches 24 – for an escape from real life. Isn’t that why movies are made?
I went to see the movie last night as well and am not a girl at all. I’m a 20 year old civil engineer/geologist and went with my 22 year old medical intern girl friend. I thought the movie was iffy but I don’t have to insult everyone who loved it.
really,…f you don’t like the movie, shush it and talk when required..if it hit sales, it’s because people love it.THE MAJORITY DOES..you’re just a dot compared to those who love it and if you hate it so much,and if its not worth your time, then why are you wrting about it…if it’s so lame, why are you making such an effort in writing and trying to degrade its patrons….it’s just a movie…why do you guys have to make a deal of insulting those who support it… at least the movie gives its patrons a bit of escape from the realities of chaos in our world…YOU DONT….
ok?so unless you are uplifting the hopes of those people who want these movies to cheer their lives up, mum it dude!
CRITICIZE BUT DON’T SCRUTINIZE!
12 year old girls shouldnt be reading twilight. it’s for an older audience definitely (note pg-13 rating).
gotta love that tween audience
I went to the midnight showing and what I saw was not tweens. There were college aged girls (me) all the way to middle aged women. I saw teenagers, but not as many as one would expect.
I agree Melissa – I went the midnight showing and there more college aged to middle aged women than tweens.
Because who is really going to let their tween at a midnight showing? They will be at tonight’s in full force….
Yikes, that sucks. I was hoping I’d be with a more mature audience tonight, but I bet you’re right.
Money talks fanboys!
paul blart made money too? so did knowing? fanboys everywhere take that
Trying to find four seats among the sea of teenage girls and mid-western moms was terrifying. Then some cool usher tipped us off that a theater with “The Fourth Kind” on the marquee was actually another Twilight screening with seats to spare. Unfortunately, this was probably the most suspenseful part of he evening.
Nice abs though, Taylor.
this twilight craze is pathetic. if you live in a town with one of those small theatres twilight will be the only movie playing essentially. if only a small portion of moviegoers want to see it
The fact that it would be the only movie playing goes to show that it’s not just a small portion of moviegoers who want to see it. Try to be logical in your comments.
It’s no more pathetic than someone thinking he’s better than it all.
I hated the first film and find the cast utterly unappealing(as actors), but to each his/her own. We like what we like.
Wow, even more remarkable considering 95 percent of those in attendance had to wake up to go to junior high school the next morning
Shows their dedication. I wanted to go but starting work at 5am made me rethink.
Dedication is one way to put it. A teacher is dedicated to their students. A spouse is dedicated to their significant other. This is sad obsession.
Sad obsession? Really, Q? Considering the fact that 50% of marriages end in divorce and most public schools are failing, I think that your perspective of “dedication” might be a little skewed. Fandom and obsession are not always the same thing and judging others because they don’t share your “higher” taste level is, quite frankly, quite sad in my books. And this is coming from someone who loathes Twilight.
I don’t even like Twilight, but I totally disagree.
I don’t think that people who are dedicated fans of a book series, or a film series, have a “sad obsession”.
Arclight Hollywood and Sherman Oaks had a 9pm showing. Last year I took my daughters and their friends. This year I dropped them off! Unfortunately the constant hyping of RPatz and KStew has made me want to have nothing to do with this new movie – which is unfortunate because it looks much better than the first and I suspect the director has done a better job too.
Wow. I can’t believe a movie that only relies on a selfish protagonist, her vampire boyfriend/tool, and gratuitous shirtlessness, can garner that much money just at midnight. Once again, all these tweens care about are the looks of the male leads. They can care less about plot material. Sad, sad, sad.
So what? I mean honestly movies are there to make money. Not every film can me a masterpiece. Some are there for mindless entertainment. I don’t see anything wrong with that. It’s just young people having some fun.
mindless entertainment? that is precisely what this is.
95% of movies for adults are mindless entertainment. Date movie, anyone?
95% of adult movies? maybe the movie whatevs see
At least society has finally started objectifying males.
here, here! lol
Oh please. Transformers 2 was completely pointless and it made over 400 million in the US. Americans are dumb and will spend money on stupid crap…particularly American teenage girls. Why do you think Hannah Montana, the Jonas Brothers, and High School Musical were so successful?
Jack Bauer is American dummy, I hate how I’ll agree with someone on here only to find out they’re one of these proud non Americans who thinks he’s better than us. Yeah teenage girls are quite airheaded, but that’s not just the American ones…travel outside your box and maybe you’ll see that.
You don’t understand this? 2012 made its budget back and then some(worldwide) in one weekend. It was the biggest piece of garbage I’ve seen in years. The Transformer films have two things going for them: Great SFX and a great rack on Megan Fox. Terrible plots and scripts and acting but they are near the top in worldwide earnings. This is what men want. So it surprises you when women run to the theater in droves to see hot men? So men are allowed guilty pleasures but women aren’t?
How would 2012 be a guilty pleasure? Or transformers for that matter? Get better analogies to make your point
How can you possible say that fans only care about the looks of the male leads? I bet 90% of the people who went to see the movie last night were fans of the books longs before any actor was even considered for the parts. These movies are based on very popluar and succesful books… with NO pictures. Think before you type!!
I know that I want to see the movie because I have read the whole series and enjoyed reading them and it has nothing to do with what the two male leads look like.
Not sure I entirely agree with that statement. My daughter read the books before the original movie came out. Now she’s a little embarassed to tell people she likes them because of all the hype around the actors.
I have little doubt this will outdo what Harry Potter did this summer for its first weekend. I think people are more likely to see it, and to see it more than once, during a fall weekend. In the summer, more people could wait to see it or see it again during the middle of the week. 110 million would not shock me.
That being said, Harry Potter had an 83% fresh rating on rottentomatoes.com this summer. New Moon is currently running at 31%.
yeah, i don’t really think that the audience seeing twilight will care about RT
Quite true. If we cared what critics had to say, we would have let them bar us from enjoying the books. It’s okay to like fluff.
Keep telling yourself that. I hope you’re reading some real books while you’re enjoying that fluff or the future of America is in serious trouble.
Of course I am, I just appreciate a little literary diversity. And I hope you’ve managed to catch some things on TV besides 24…Ken Burns series on the National Parks was very good, that might be a place for you to start. By the way, I’m saying that 24 is fluff too. But it’s not taking down America. Enjoy!
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! You think this movie will make over 930 million WORLDWIDE?! Yeah right! The first twilight film barely made over 300 million worldwide. This won’t make more than 500 million. It can’t even touch the lowest grossing Potter film, POA, which made 784 million.
No, I don’t think it will make 930 million. I think it will beat Harry Potter for the opening weekend in the US. I don’t think it has nearly the global reach of Harry Potter.
I saw the movie at 9AM Friday and it was half full . .so bunch of guys with their girlfriends, fathers with their preteens. The mid-night shows were only the beginning. Didn’t think it could make 100MM+ but 25MM+ in the bank before Friday night is not a bad start.
It hasn’t made 100 million yet. I think everyone who’s going to see this movie saw it at midnight. The money it makes over the weekend will be from the same little girls re-watching it for a 2nd or 3rd time. It won’t make over a million…it will make 80 at the most.
I saw this last night with my GF. Wasn’t that scary, we make out afterwards.
Not surprised at the midnight gross record, given how front-loaded this thing is. Just like I won’t be surprised next summer when Eclipse tops it, or next November when Deathly Hallows I tops that…you see where I’m going. The question is, can it maintain the numbers and not drop a ton through Saturday? It’s getting some atrocious reviews, the majority of which weren’t released before the midnight madness rush.
I’m still not convinced that New Moon is going to post final numbers anywhere near The Dark Knight, Pirates, Lord of the Rings, Spider-Man or even Harry Potter. I don’t think it has that broad of a fan base (which is what drove Pirates and Spider-Man), and I don’t think it’s that good of a film (The Dark Knight, Harry Potter). It may have beaten The Dark Knight by about $8 million and Harry Potter by $4 million at midnight, but those two films made staggering amounts of money in the long run based on word of mouth and being quality films. New Moon is going to burn hot, but burn fast.
Don’t fool yourself.
You might want to take your own advice. The film will make a lot of money but, if we were to forecast the revenue based upon the record setting midnight numbers, it would not ultimately come close to expectations in the end. This film won’t come close to the Harry Potter or Dark Knight numbers but the coffers will be padded quite a bit. Why take offense to what most are predicting?
Absolutely. The majority of the people seeing this movie are book fans. Without the background of the book, the movie is awful (I didn’t like the Twilight book and the movie was atrocious, in my opinion). And all those book fans are the ones seeing it this weekend. After that, I don’t see much happening. Good point, James.
mark are u russian house dj?
*sigh* All that money for what was a godawful, boring film.
I think Peter Travers was right. The biggest turd does float to the top of the punch bowl.
Katie!!! Quit poopin’ in the punch bowl!
What a shocker. I think we all knew this was going to happen.
After the tweens see this a billion times it will have no one else to see it. Critics and people have already said its no good. Harry Potter made 400 million worldwide in it’s first weekend as well as 930 million in total, lets see New Moon match that.
Lulz at “tweens” being separated from “people.”
But no, I agree. HP6 has the #1 worldwide opening weekend rank, and I don’t see that going down. I also don’t see The Dark Knight’s #1 domestic rank of $158 million going down, either.
I think most people saw it at midnight, and all but the most slavish got it out of their systems. It’s the epitome of a “front-loaded” movie. It’ll have a huge opening weekend, but no legs.
lulz? Are you serious? Is that a play on “lol”? Wow….
Show’s that Americans still love absolute trash!
Get a life.
You first!