We reported this morning that New Moon had taken more at midnight screenings in the US than any other film in history, and that box office watchers were now waiting to see whether it would take The Dark Knight’s crown for the biggest opening day ever. Well, the figures are in and the Twilight sequel has indeed broken that record.
New Moon took $72.7 million in the US yesterday (according to the official estimate from the film’s producer, Summit Entertainment), beating out The Dark Knight’s already impressive tally of $67.2 million on July 18th, 2008. It also did it on 300 fewer screens than The Dark Knight, which opened on 4,336 screens compared to New Moon’s 4,024. It means that in a single day, New Moon took only $2 million less than Twilight did last year in its entire opening weekend, and that it has already outgrossed its $50 million production budget (whereas Dark Knight cost $185 million to make).
Although it means Bat-fans and those who seem oddly agrieved by Twilight’s existence will be grumbling, it does show that Twilight has turned into a genuine phenomenon, particularly as it’s making all this money by attracting a completely different audience to what Hollywood generally considers to be its core viewers (15-30 year-old men, who are normally seen as the most important people to attract if you want a blockbuster).
Of course eyes will now turn to whether New Moon can take the opening weekend record. This will largely depend on whether all of the rabid New Moon fans went to watch the film yesterday, which would result in the rest of the weekend being weaker, or if there are still a lot of people out there beyond the Twi-hards who are prepared to line up for the film this over the next day or so.