NEW MOON Sets New Records At The Box Office
Hordes of young teens flooded the theaters this weekend, helping The Twilight Saga: New Moon to set new midnight showing ($26.3 million) and opening day ($72.7 million) records on its way to a staggering $140.7 million three-day total. Easily the best opening weekend of the year, New Moon now sits in the #3 spot behind The Dark Knight ($158.4 million) and Spider-Man 3 ($151.1 million) on the all-time list. Now, if we could only get the youngin’s to show up in those numbers at the polls, today’s youth might actually be a force to be reckoned with.
New Moon more than doubled Twilight’s $69.6 million opening weekend take, and now sits just $50 million shy of the original’s $192.8 million domestic total. However, Twilight plummeted over 62% in its second weekend, and already day-to-day drops point to a similar pattern for New Moon. Eclipse, the third film in the franchise, is slated for a June 30 release in 2010, or just seven months from now.
The Blind Side debuted in a distant second with $34.5 million – not much considering New Moon’s take but considerable in its own right. It’s not only a personal best for Sandra Bullock (narrowly edging out The Proposal), but it’s also the highest bow for a sports drama. Planet 51, the other new wide opener, came in 4th place with a sub-par $12.6 million. 2012 came in 3rd with $26.5 million and A Christmas Carol rounded out the top 5 with a $12.2 million showing.
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans opened in limited release with $257,000 at 27 venues, or a $9,519 per-theater average. Broken Embraces, Pedro Almodovar’s latest with Penelope Cruz, bowed much more gracefully with $108,000 at 2 sites, or an impressive $54,000 average. Wes Anderson’s The Fantastic Mr. Fox stayed solid in its second weekend of limited release, pulling in $199,000 at 4 theaters for a $49,750 average.
Next week, two new wide releases bow on opposite ends of the spectrum. First up is Ninja Assassin, the Wachowski Brothers-produced hyper-violent action flick, followed by Old Dogs, the new John Travolta-Robin Williams tame-looking comedy. Fantastic Mr. Fox also expands wide to 2,000+ theaters. Disney’s The Princess and the Frog will open at 2 theaters and the adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic thriller The Road will also go into limited release. I’m liking Ninja Assassin to open ahead of Old Dogs (or I certainly hope that’s the case, if I’m to keep any faith in the taste of America’s moviegoing public). The record stands at 52 for 69.
Check out the top 12 below, or head on over to Box Office Mojo for the full weekend chart:
New releases highlighted in yellow
| TW | LW | Title (click to view) | Studio | Weekend Gross | % Change | Theater Count / Change | Average | Total Gross | Budget* | Week # | |
| 1 | N | The Twilight Saga: New Moon | Sum. | $140,700,000 | - | 4,024 | - | $34,965 | $140,700,000 | - | 1 |
| 2 | N | The Blind Side | WB | $34,510,000 | - | 3,110 | - | $11,096 | $34,510,000 | - | 1 |
| 3 | 1 | 2012 | Sony | $26,500,000 | -59.4% | 3,408 | +4 | $7,776 | $108,221,000 | $200 | 2 |
| 4 | N | Planet 51 | Sony | $12,600,000 | - | 3,035 | - | $4,152 | $12,600,000 | - | 1 |
| 5 | 2 | A Christmas Carol (2009) | BV | $12,230,000 | -45.2% | 3,578 | -105 | $3,418 | $79,791,000 | $200 | 3 |
| 6 | 3 | Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire | LGF | $11,008,000 | +87.4% | 629 | +455 | $17,501 | $21,403,000 | $10 | 3 |
| 7 | 4 | The Men Who Stare at Goats | Over. | $2,773,000 | -52.7% | 2,056 | -397 | $1,349 | $27,624,000 | $25 | 3 |
| 8 | 7 | Couples Retreat | Uni. | $1,952,000 | -53.1% | 1,712 | -797 | $1,140 | $105,001,000 | $70 | 7 |
| 9 | 6 | The Fourth Kind | Uni. | $1,730,000 | -62.4% | 1,648 | -882 | $1,050 | $23,343,000 | - | 3 |
| 10 | 9 | Law Abiding Citizen | Over. | $1,615,000 | -57.5% | 1,327 | -744 | $1,217 | $70,027,000 | $50 | 6 |
| 11 | 5 | Michael Jackson’s This Is It | Sony | $1,575,000 | -69.0% | 1,640 | -1,397 | $960 | $70,216,000 | - | 4 |
| 12 | 11 | Pirate Radio | Focus | $1,449,000 | -50.1% | 883 | +1 | $1,641 | $5,174,000 | $50 | 2 |
Tags: 2012, A Christmas Carol, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Box Office, Broken Embraces, Ninja Assassin, Old Dogs, Planet 51, The Blind Side, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Princess and the Frog, The Road, The Twilight Saga: New Moon
