November 23, 2009

'New Moon' Has Third-Biggest Opening Weekend Of All Time

By Josh Wigler (MTV.com)

#1 The Twilight Saga: New Moon ($140.7 million)
#2 The Blind Side ($34.5 million)
#3 2012 ($26.5 million)
#4 Planet 51 ($12.6 million)
#5 A Christmas Carol ($12.2 million)

The full extent of the Twilight phenomenon made itself known this weekend with the debut of The Twilight Saga: New Moon, the second installment in the supernatural romance franchise starring Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner. There was little to no doubt that New Moon would emerge as this weekend's box-office champion, but perhaps no one was prepared for just how successful Summit Entertainment's Twilight sequel would be.

On Friday alone, New Moon managed to earn $72.7 million, surpassing The Dark Knight as the single best opening day in cinema history. A hefty $26.3 million chunk of that Friday change came purely from midnight showings, propelling New Moon past Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince with the highest-grossing midnight opening of all time. New Moon also debuted with the biggest November opening ever and the third-best opening weekend of all time, taking that distinction away from Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.

To put the success of New Moon in perspective, the first Twilight film - which opened almost a year ago to the day - earned only $69.6 million in its debut weekend, demonstrating just how widespread the Twilight craze has become in only 12 months.

The audience for the Twilight films isn't just made of young women pining for shirtless screen time from Pattinson and Lautner, either - the movie's audience, while mostly female, was divided evenly between viewers under and over the age of 21. Apparently, there is no age restriction when it comes to falling in love with vampire and werewolf heartthrobs.

The success of Twilight won't end with New Moon either, as The Twilight Saga: Eclipse launches on June 30, 2010.

Despite the unprecedented victory for New Moon, credit must be given to some of the film's other competitors this weekend. The Blind Side, starring Sandra Bullock, managed a second-place finish with an impressive $34.5 million intake. Planet 51, another newcomer, earned fourth place with $12.6 million. Holdovers 2012 and A Christmas Carol also performed adequately under the pressure of New Moon, winding up with $26.5 million and $12.2 million apiece.

Twilight fans in Singapore can rejoice as special sneak previews of The Twilight Saga: New Moon will be held islandwide this weekend, from Thursday 26th to Sunday 29th November.

The Twilight Saga: New Moon opens in Singapore on 3 December and is distributed by Shaw Organisation.