New Moon Third Best Opening Weekend Ever

It may have broken the record for grosses from midnight showings and for a single day but it could not capture the opening weekend record. The Twilight Saga: New Moon was able to draw $140.7 million through Sunday making it the third biggest opening ever. It falls only behind The Dark Knight with $158 million and Spider-man 3 with $151 million.

Everyone was prepared for a huge weekend from New Moon but most were looking for between $85 million and $105 million. There was a smaller drop-off through Saturday and Sunday than the original Twilight which is somewhat surprising. In all likelihood it will see drastic dips in the coming weekends unless it can pull repeat viewings from the die-hard fans.

Twilight had its opening weekend represent 36% of its final box office gross. Even if New Moon gets hit harder and the weekend ends up as 45% of the final gross it could be on the way to over $300 million domestic and $600 million total worldwide.  All this for a movie that carried a budget of only about $70 million.

There was actually another movie that exceeded expectations this weekend. The Blind Side pulled in $34.5 million after most thought it would finish in the teens. I had looked at The Rookie and Remember the Titans when evaluating its strength given the similarities as inspirational sports stories from Disney. What may have been underestimated is support that came from those who had already read the well-renowned book as well as the really heavy marketing push and backing of various family organizations.

The final new release was Planet 51 which completed the weekend with $12.6 million putting it right in line with predictions. Appealing to the younger children more than any of the other family-oriented movies right now gave it an edge there but also meant that parents might be more inclined to see tweeners like A Christmas Carol. What might have hurt it worse is not being in 3D which is becoming an necessity for kids movies that want to break out big.