Absolutely unbelievable. Wow. That is all I can say. Who in their right mind would have predicted such a gigantic opening? I certainly couldn't. I knew it would be big, heck, I am pretty sure we all knew that. The phenomenon that was Twilight has become a juggernaut with The Twilight Saga: New Moon. The first suspicion I had that it would be bigger than expected was when the local 16 screen theater has 13 screens sold out for the midnight show. Yes, you read that right. Speaking to friends who work there, it was a mad house with the line wrapped around the theater, out the doors into the mall, out of the mall and into the parking lot and on down towards the far end of said mall. It all seems pretty unreal. To think I was impressed by the long lines I saw inside when I went to see Pirate Radio Friday night.
The vampire teen romance film set a new record for midnight shows, taking in more than $23 million and besting The Dark Knight's $16.7 by a wide margin. It would end the day north of $72 million, again besting The Dark Knight's single day record of $67 million. I saw those numbers (or rather the pretty close estimates) on Saturday and was just in awe of what I saw. And considering my interest level, just a little disappointed that it was not a better overall received film. It would go on to finish the weekend with more than $142 million, making it the third biggest opening weekend of all time coming in behind Spider-Man 3 and The Dark Knight.
What is going to be interesting is to see what kind of legs it exhibits. It will likely do well through the Thanksgiving holiday, but what about after that? By that time I am sure all of the hardcore fans will have burned through their multiple viewings. The movie does not exactly have widespread appeal across the demographics, and with a good portion of the fanbase headed back to school, weekday numbers will suffer more so than they would during the summer. Something else to consider is how this will translate to the third film, slated to open next June.
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