“There was little question last week that the second chapter of Stephenie Meyers’ supernatural romance drama The Twilight Saga: New Moon with Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson would open big, but after setting a new midnight record on Thursday and a new single day record on Friday with $72.7 million, it has left even the most jaded critic of the franchise flabbergasted at how well the movie performed. In its first three days, New Moon grossed an estimated $140.7 million, the third biggest opening weekend domestically of all time with a per-site average of just under $35,000 per venue, the fourth largest per-theater average for a wide release. The movie also surpassed the previous November opening record for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by a wide margin. Essentially, it grossed almost exactly twice the opening weekend gross of the first Twilight exactly a year ago. The first installment went on to gross roughly $190 million, but with so much clear frontloading to Friday, it’s difficult to tell how well the sequel will hold up compared to the original movie. With Thanksgiving and the holidays coming up, it should be able to at least get to $300 million in its theatrical run, which once again puts it up against the “Harry Potter” franchise, the sixth installment which is currently the #2 movie of the year with $301.8 million. On top of that, the Chris Weitz-directed epic took in $118.1 million internationally in 25 markets for a total global take in just three days of $258.8 million.”

Source: Coming Soon