"The Twilight Saga: New Moon" takes in over $140 million in opening weekend & sets new records

November 22, 10:57 PMPortland Books ExaminerSara Gundell

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"The Twilight Saga: New Moon" has set multiple new records at the box office during
its three-day opening this weekend. It is now number one at the box office.
Photo: Summit Entertainment/"The Twilight Saga: New Moon"

(Note updated numbers throughout.)

There is no doubt about it. "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" is a box office success -- smashing records this weekend, earning an estimated $140.7 million $142.8 million and becoming the third-biggest three-day opening weekend ever for a movie.

First, "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" set a new record for the biggest midnight opening ever, raking in $26.3 million. Then, the movie went on to set an all-time high for one-day earnings at the box office, earning $72.7 million in screenings on Friday alone.

Fandango reported that tickets for "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" were selling at a rate of ten per second. (Later selling at a rate of 14 per second!)

Industry analysts quickly changed their weekend predictions for the movie from $85 million to $125 million. All of this while critics balked -- criticizing the movie and accusing Summit of pandering to the female fanbase (another issue altogether, and addressed beautifully both by Novel Novice Twilight and the Twilight Examiner).

But fans of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga books are getting the last laugh, as the second movie adaptation in the franchise rakes in a glorious estimated $140.7 million in its 3-day opening weekend.

UPDATE: The official box office numbers now show that "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" officially earned $142.8 million dollars in its 3-day opening weekend, surpassing conservative estimates.

That makes it the third biggest opening weekend ever for a movie -- behind only "The Dark Knight" and "Spider-Man 3," both blockbuster superhero movies. "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" beat out Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean 3: Dead Man's Chest" to take the number three spot on the all-time best weekend opening list.

On top of all that, the LA Times reports that "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" earned $118.1 million  $132.1 million in foreign ticket sales -- bringing the movie's global box office take to $258.8 million $274.9 million this weekend. That's the seventh-biggest worldwide opening of all-time. And the LA Times notes that several countries where "Twilight" is huge haven't even gotten the new movie yet -- including Germany, South Korea and Russia. Deadline Hollywood adds that overseas ticket sales also broke numerous box office records for international receipts (including becoming the number 2 opening film of all-time in the UK, second only to last year's "Quantum of Solace.")

According to Variety, "New Moon" also led the second-best ever weekend at the box office for overall ticket sales -- coming in second only to the weekend Warner Bros.'s "The Dark Knight" opened, and that was in the summer -- which typically earns higher box office numbers than fall, winter or spring movies. (Besides overwhelming numbers for "New Moon," sales this weekend at the box office were boosted by better-than-expected numbers for "The Blind Side," another book-turned-movie.)  

Meanwhile, Reuters reports that about 80% of the audience this weekend was female, and about half were under the age of 21. Summit reports that "New Moon" had more men in the audience than "Twilight" -- along with a few more older women.

So what's next for "The Twilight Saga" movies? The third installment in the franchise, "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" wrapped filming in October, and is due out in theaters June 30, 2010 (as noted at the very end of the credits in "New Moon.")

As for its future at the box office, "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" is facing some new competition as it heads into the Thanksgiving weekend. New releases this coming week include Disney's family comedy "Old Dogs" and the Cormac McCarthy adaptation "The Road." Both have big potential to draw in Thanksgiving crowds, but "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" still stands a chance of holding onto a large audience. We'll have to wait and see if it can hold onto the number one spot at the box office in week two.