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'New Moon' Helps Drive Second-Biggest Box Office Weekend of All Time
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Box Office, Industry
Quick, name the three biggest opening weekend films of all time! "The Dark Knight" remains number one, "Spider-Man 3" holds on at number two, but zipping in at number three, "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" has shot past "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" and cemented a place for itself in the box office record books!
The film has pulled in an estimated $140.7 million at the domestic box office in just three days. Lest we think "Twilight" is just a North American phenomenon, the international numbers are already looking really strong.
The LA Times writes:
In the 25 foreign countries where "New Moon" launched, it added an extra .1 million, giving it a mind-bending worldwide total of .8 million. That's the seventh-biggest worldwide launch of all time and is particularly notable given that several international markets where the first "Twilight" performed very well, including Germany, South Korea and Russia, haven't gotten the film yet.
Nikki Finke adds:
Internationally, New Moon will play in 75 territories total, rolling out from Wednesday through Sunday in 25 markets and maxing out by mid-December. This is said to be the tightest independent worldwide release ever. It rolled out overseas to a big start, opening Wednesday in France to .4 million, which was nearly four times the .2 million earned there on the first day of Twilight.
"Twilight" isn't the only big movie at the box office this weekend, as we noted yesterday, both "Precious" and "The Blind Side" turned out stellar performances.
"The Blind Side," which was thought to maybe open in the $20 million range, instead took in an estimated $34.5 million. As Variety notes, that makes this weekend the second-best weekend at the domestic box office ever. Only the weekend that "The Dark Knight" opened in July 2008 took in more movie-goers, and that was during the summer.
Here are the current box office estimates for the weekend:
- "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" - $140.7 million domestic
- "The Blind Side" - $34.5 million
- "2012" - $26.5 million, total domestic gross has still crossed over $108 million.
- "Planet 51" - $12.6 million
- "A Christmas Carol" - $12.2 million
- "Precious" - Now on 629 screens, $11 million. Domestic total so far is $21.4 million.
- "The Men Who Stare At Goats" - $2.8 million
- "Couples Retreat" - $2 million
- "The Fourth Kind" - $1.7 million
- "Law Abiding Citizen" - $1.6 million
With strong new releases in a variety of genres and the continued success of "Precious" and juggernauts like "2012," this was one of the biggest and most exciting movie weekends of all time.
What did you see at the theater this weekend? Are you planning to hit the theater over Thanksgiving? Let us know!
Sources: Variety, The LA Times and Deadline Hollywood
