Posted by Adam

Friday November 20, 2009

THE Twilight Saga: New Moon — which I saw today and LOVED! — broke the record for biggest midnight opening last night, beating The Dark Knight and the top Harry Potter franchise performer.

The Twilight sequel — which stars Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner — grossed $26.270 million playing at 3,514 theaters for a per theater average of $7,476.

Impressive stuff!

“THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON has set a new record for opening midnight shows with an estimated gross of $26.270 million playing at 3,514 theaters for a per theater average of $7,476,” said a statement from Summit Entertainment. “THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON passes HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE ($22.2 million) to take the number one spot.*  Following POTTER is DARK KNIGHT ($18.5 million).”

* Records based on data from BoxOffice.com

In addition to New Moon, Summit re-issued Twilight in theaters.  The film grossed $1.3 million playing at 2,057 theaters for a per theater average of $631.

You Twilighters obviously love spending your (parents’) money!!!!!!

Pattinson — who plays vampire Edward Cullen in the movie series — recently revealed that he felt “relaxed” about the release of New Moon.

“I’m surprised at how relaxed I am about the whole thing now,” the 23-year-old said. “I was really nervous when we started shooting New Moon, especially because of the expectation and everything… only because the first one did so well. I was really freaking out.”

Referring to the time Twilight fans were writing on internet message boards that they didn’t want him to play Edward, Pattinson said, “I think, in a way, I liked that. I felt I had less pressure because I had absolutely zero expectations whatsoever.

“For New Moon I was kind of freaking out a little bit at first, but hopefully I learned a couple of things that seemed to work on the first one. So I’m pretty calm now.”

Tags: twilight