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Saturday
21Nov2009

Box Office: 'New Moon' Earns Record $72.7 Million

DateSaturday, November 21, 2009 at 10:28AM
We said that New Moon would hit $100 million this weekend. Scratch that. After breaking the midnight box office record and the one-day record set last year by The Dark Knight, it's time to amend that figure a little bit. Yes, the old opening day champeen was $67 million, and while that's an enormous number, I think the real trick is beating Dark Knight's $158 million three-day haul, and I'm still of the opinion New Moon will quake a little now that the fanatics have been satiated.

There is, however, simply no arguing with $73 million in one day, even if it does drop back to $35 milion or so today and roughly $20 million tomorrow. New Moon was a full 10% higher than The Dark Knight's opening day (the official estimate is $72.7 million), and perhaps more importantly, the film grossed more in one day than Twilight did in its entire first weekend.

The revised estimate for this weekend will probably top out in the $130 - $135 million range; unless the bottom absolutely drops out, New Moon won't lose more than 65% today or 65% tomorrow, and if it does exactly those worst-case-scenario numbers, it will still be over $100 million. I would think it's more likely that the biggest drop will be today, and then tomorrow's numbers will be soft, but not as great a fall in terms of percentages from the previous day.

If it loses 40% each day - roughly what Twilight did - then this will make $142 million this weekend. But I think it will be a bigger drop today than 40% (maybe half the crowd, because the number was so high yesterday, then 40% off tomorrow), hence the lower revised estimate. But that would still be a mammoth three-day opening, and in fact, there's almost no way this isn't the fourth-biggest three-day weekend in history, and it could be number three without too much trouble.

Granted, the midnight screening element has really taken off in the last 18 months to become a major factor, but welcome to the show, Twilight.

AuthorColin Boyd | | in , , | Print ArticlePrint Article | | Comment3 Comments |

Reader Comments (3)

Wow. You know people give Dark Knight fanboys a lot crap, but at least we had the common courtesy to pick a good movie to flock to.

Saturday, November 21, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterD

yeah i was surprised at how many people applauded the film when the movie finished. it was a horrible movie. the fans can't get past their love of the male eye candy to see the flaws of the franchise. but then again, if you look at what's on tv then this phenomenon shouldn't be so hard to believe. after all people in this generation flock to so much shitty pop culture entertainment. it's like they don't demand more from their entertainment (i.e. dancing with the stars, american idol, hills etc)

Saturday, November 21, 2009 | Unregistered Commenterandrew

Still havent seen it myself, I snubbed 2 girls who wanted me to go with them but hey I dont want to pay for this...I know it wont be good

But this is major money their making, I mean wow I actually am very surprised...

But I did say on Get The Big Picture many times, the film did look much better than #1 and had seems to have more action to it, according to the trailer, but hey what do I know I havent read the books or seen either so....

Saturday, November 21, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterSEAN

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