Well, the vampires did it. After crushing the box office record for biggest draw for a midnight release, New Moon has officially broken the record for best opening day sales.
The film’s first day in theaters grossed $72.7 million at 4,024 theaters, easily passing up the amount brought in by former holder of the “best opening day” title, The Dark Knight. That film saw $67.2 million, and was released in three hundred more theaters than New Moon.
New Moon’s opening not only beat out Dark Knight’s record, but also trounced the opening numbers of its own predecessor. Twilight earned only $36 million in its first day, meaning that the franchise has seen a more than 100% gain with the second film of the saga.
The numbers for the flick suggest that New Moon has managed to draw in an audience far beyond its core fan base, even if that expansion includes people who only saw the movie to see what the hype’s about — or disgruntled boyfriends who were dragged to the theater by their girlfriends.
Warner Bros. Studios played off the fact that New Moon has a specific target audience, and opened The Blind Side on the same day, hoping to appeal to those wanting to hit the theater, but not interested in the vampire film. However, the Blind Side ended up only bringing in a modest $10.9 million.
Rather than fading, the Twilight phenomena seems to just continue to thrive, thanks largely to a very strong fan audience. If the interest in all things Twilight keeps on the way it is, we could very well see the release of the third installment beat the franchise’s own record yet again.
