Saturday, November 21
By 5 p.m., the movie had already sold more than $50 million worth of tickets in the U.S. and Canada. When evening shows are included, the total will likely be more than $70 million, the people said. Given the huge amount of pent-up interest among fans, who are rushing out to theaters on opening day, ticket sales are expected to drop significantly on Saturday and Sunday. Nonetheless, a total weekend gross of more than $110 million is all but certain and more than $120 million is very possible. That would give "New Moon" the biggest weekend gross for any movie this year and make it one of the top five pictures of all time at the domestic box office, not accounting for ticket price inflation. read more
Friday, November 20
That easily beats the $22.2 million collected by "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" this summer. In addition, the re-issue of "Twilight" on screens Thursday night grossed $1.3 million from 2,057 theaters nationwide. read more
Rival studios are telling me this morning that Summit Entertainment's New Moon debuted with $23M-$24M in 12:01AM screenings. That would set a new midnight opening record, smashing The Dark Knight's $18.4M set on July 18, 2008, and Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince's $22.2M set on July 15, 2009. Summit has yet to release an official number for the Twilight sequel's midnight debut in 3,514 theaters. read more