'New Moon' Smashes 'Dark Knight's' Opening Day Record!
Filed under: Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Box Office, Fandom, Newsstand
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According to ERC, The Twilight Saga: New Moon sold roughly $71 million (Variety is reporting $72.7 million) worth of tickets on its opening day -- a number that, if correct, far surpasses the current opening day box office record of $67 million set by The Dark Knight back in 2008. With its $26 million take in midnight showings, that gives the second installment in the Twilight franchise two pretty giant records: Best Midnight Opening and Best Single Day Opening. Next up for the franchise is the three-day opening weekend record, also held by The Dark Knight with $158 million.
So what does this say about us? Well, while it's not as critically acclaimed as, say, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (previous midnight opening record holder) or The Dark Knight, these numbers do show just how much of an impact the female audience can have on a box office take. Sure, when The Dark Knight broke records everyone wanted to single out the teenage male audience as having won that film its titles, but polls showed females were responsible for upwards of 50% of that film's opening box office too. And now, with New Moon breaking records attracting a younger female audience, here's hoping studios wake up and realize that, yeah, the female audience is a damn powerful force.
So kudos to all you Twi-hards for showing up to support the property you love. Is the film truly worthy of its new records? Probably not. Will another film break those records within the next year? Yeah, most likely. But dammit if the folks at Summit Entertainment aren't partying their asses off this weekend. They just won the World Series at the box office. Congrats!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
11-21-2009 @ 11:19AM
TOm Strong said...
These teenage twi-tards don't count. They have no lives. They are sheep. This record is null and void.
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11-21-2009 @ 11:39AM
meme said...
tom your the one with no life looking up something that you dont like so you can make some stupid comment and feel special but dont worry you are special (special ed)dont hate because every girl in the world would rather date a vampire or werewolf then you
11-21-2009 @ 1:14PM
flute_genevive said...
I don't appreciate your sheep comparison. I may be a teen (18), but I am not a mindless follower of all things Twilight. No, it is not the greatest movie/book of all time, but it is fun for me - a 4.0 AP class student who works her ass off 24/7 - to have a night of fun and go out with my friends. I have a life and I work extremely hard to be a well-rounded, cultured and knowledgable person. Just because I like to enjoy a little fluffy romance and have one silly thing in my life does not make me a sheep, who bows down to Taylor Lautner and Summit Entertainment.
11-21-2009 @ 11:39AM
Cyhort said...
*pukes*
I don't know why people are trying to spin this as a victory for female moviegoers. The entire point of the series is that women are defined by who they're dating and if they don't have a boyfriend their life is meaningless. It would be like PETA members turning out for a cooking show and not realizing that the chicken salad has an animal in it. It's more of a testament to their inability to think past Jacward's dreaminess than anything else.
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11-21-2009 @ 1:08PM
anonymous said...
"I don't know why people are trying to spin this as a victory for female moviegoers. The entire point of the series is that women are defined by who they're dating and if they don't have a boyfriend their life is meaningless. "
Thats why I have mixed feelings on the success of Twilight. It does give the studio's reason to make more movies for women but its depiction of female characters is outdated.
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11-21-2009 @ 1:51PM
Jen said...
Ah, glorious schadenfreude. I find it absolutely hysterical that the manly geek population has been thrown into a collective sulk because teenage girls brought bank.
This is a win for the young female audience because this is one of the few film series we've seen aimed squarely at them. And frankly they've been neglected by Hollywood for far too long. While I have no interest in the films themselves, I hope this will pave the way for better material aimed at the same audience.
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11-21-2009 @ 3:24PM
Rodney said...
Unfortunately, it teaches young girls to devote themselves entirely to a man and have no lives of their own. The Bella character is an utterly terrible heroine: entirely helpless without men around, defined entirely by the male characters around her. If this franchise sprang from the mind of a man it would be deemed misogynist. It's a truly despicable conceit in this day and age.
11-21-2009 @ 3:33PM
Jen said...
I don't disagree with you. But looking at it strictly from the money and demographics standpoint, this is a clear win for the female audience. Which means we'll get more content - hopefully *better* content.
11-21-2009 @ 3:57PM
Rodney said...
I think some worthwhile films can already be found out there, I'm just saddened that the demographic will most likely not be flocking to see 'An Education'. Instead 'Sex and The City 2' or 'Twilight 3' will generate more excitement, not the ones with more genuine substance.
Then again, on the flipside of that coin, I'm disappointed that 'Moon' struggled to get a release while 'Transformers 2' was obliterating eardrums and braincells.
It's a lose/lose either way, in my embittered opinion.
11-21-2009 @ 6:05PM
BloodwerK said...
Oops. Forgot to give you props on a post well done...
11-21-2009 @ 2:01PM
Anna said...
Twillight made $385 millions worldwide.
I predict that new, crappy Twillight movie will make less.
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11-21-2009 @ 2:11PM
gutsydevil said...
cyhort says
"The entire point of the series is that women are defined by who they're dating and if they don't have a boyfriend their life is meaningless."
"t's more of a testament to their inability to think past Jacward's dreaminess than anything else."
- oh really?! so you really think that those who love this kind of movies has the same kind of mentality, personality, philosophy and belief that that this particular movie characters has? you know what? are you associating the character of a person depending on what kind of movies they watch as if that is the way their brain works? do you really think that we believe and act just the same as those characters in those movies does? oh my g-o-d your i-n-s-a-n-e! common we girls know the diff. between whats real and whats not. between reality and fantasy. between was just a movie versus real life philosophy. like some guys are pigs and there are more important things in life than being desperate to have a guy in your life and were not gonna die if we have no love life! c'mon its just a f****** movie that we just happen to enjoy and find entertaining helloooooo....... you are so n-u-t-s !!! maybe if you happen to love harry potter series ( which i also happen to love also. i love deathly hallows and the characters there esp. ron) you would go try to fly with your own broomstick at home wondering if some naughty witch has cast a spell in it! or maybe you're have a criminal tendencies or a psycho because you love watching violent movies like saw series or whatever guy films out there thats full of drugs, violence, lust, greed, bombs blowing every where type of movies. i feel pity for you... you just cant separate the diff. between a movie goer vs. a movie character or story. i also love watching violent movies my self but i know its got nothing to do with me or with my character because its just a movie. does'nt mean i'd enjoyed watching how the main character in the story rip the heads off of those too evil to be human villains in the movie that i believe his actions were right, if we apply it in real life. i dont now about you. but base on your own words and statement it seems like you would love to welcome a world war 3 just to see those blowing buildings and plane in real life. because you cant live without bombs just like how you think that girls cant live without boyfriends because of the kind of movies we watch. you know what i dont think you will find megatron not because he is dead but because he dont exist okey?! so stop searching! youre believing it too much its just a movie!!! idiot!!!
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11-21-2009 @ 7:20PM
Me said...
Lol I totally agree with gutsydevil!! ^.^ And mike...shut the **** up!!!
11-21-2009 @ 10:55PM
Ana said...
Preach it sis!
Men can indulge themselves on stupid violent movies, beer and porn and nothing happens but if get a kick out of watching a romance movie and spending our hard earning money on that we have no lives and are stupid...Yeah that is feminist thinking at 100%.
11-21-2009 @ 2:56PM
Xaeinovis said...
Man, fuck life.
A year in which Revenge of the Fallen makes over $800 million worldwide, and now this.
You can argue until you lose your voice about how it could just be a difference in taste that explains why people show up in droves for this stuff, but their breath has to straight-up stink if they're eating up this certified crap!
It makes me so sad to see something so mundane as Twilight become so successful... but honestly, who's going to give a damn what I say?
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11-21-2009 @ 3:45PM
warbringerdoom said...
I give a damn!! It's official humanity is OVER!! Transformers last year and now TWEENLIGHT!!! I'll give us another 10 years before ASS: THE MOVIE SWEEPS THE ACADEMY AWARDS!!! It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't a direct marketing ploy to get little girls( and girls with little minds) and the over 40 to plop down and oh, here i comes ooooh here it comes!! HE TOOK HIS SHIRT OFF!!! AHHHHHHH!! Now it's the GREATEST. MOVIE. EVER.!!! Plus i bet over half of the people that go and see this will be the only time they step foot in a theater ALL YEAR!!
11-21-2009 @ 3:11PM
gutsy devil said...
you know what i love the part 1of that transformer movie. and i think t is really great. but the revenge of the fallen? wel its a big big c-r-a-p!!!
now...It makes me so sad to see something so junk as the revenge of a fallen become so successful. making $800 million dollar worldwide too. you now what? you have a point crap should't earn that much like the revenge and that saw series but anyways. i dont give a damn its their money anyway. i dont know why you care so much as if you were so affected by the other people like a sulky little vampire
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11-21-2009 @ 3:59PM
Mike said...
for the record, both transformers movies sucks ass; the second much more so than the first.
The main problem that male audiences and critical movie goers have with this film is that it is just a bad movie in general. The CG is terrible, the acting is wooden, and the story and execution are just plain bad.
People new that this film was going to be bad when early reviews started coming in mid week. When i am looking forward to a movie that gets utterly terrible reviews, i have enough common sense not to go see it.
So the problem that at least I have with this movie is that young girls are so dumb and numb to the fact that the movie isn't good that they spent millions of dollars seeing it anyway. And that is not a win for female audiences, it just gives reason to stupidity.
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11-21-2009 @ 4:05PM
Rich said...
The problem will come with this movie or the the 4th one. The amount of money it will have made will almost automatically make it an Oscar contender ala Titanic.
And just like Titanic, it will win awards it doesn't deserve.
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11-21-2009 @ 6:13PM
Bill said...
You cannot compare this crap to Titanic.