Girls unloaded $68.5 million from their purses on Wednesday for a chance to see Summit Entertainment�s The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. As anticipated, domestic records have been broken with the Saga�s third installment. Eclipse easily became the highest grossing Wednesday opener ever, but came in second - to its previous sequel New Moon - for the single day record (New Moon had a Friday release, and holds the all-time record with $72.7 million).
In looking at this summer�s numbers alone, what�s jaw dropping about Eclipse�s box office debut is that it generated more money in a day than any of the top three Memorial Day films did over the entire four-day holiday (Shrek Forever After, Prince of Persia and Sex and the City 2).
Eclipse is playing at 4,416 theaters in North America and it had no problem receiving an A Cinemascore. The film ups its theater count to 4,468 on Friday, becoming the widest release in history, beating both Iron Man 2�s opening count of 4,380 and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince�s 4,455, which is the widest for a film at any point in its theatrical release.
Many analysts are betting that Eclipse unseats Spider-Man 2 as the biggest box office release spanning a six-day Fourth of July weekend (Spider-Man 2 also opened on June 30th back in 2004). Spider-Man 2 drew over $180 million with its highest grossing day (also a Wednesday) opening at $40.4 million. The film�s second highest day was Saturday, July 3 ($33.7 million) and its lowest was Sunday, July 4 ($21.95 million). It�s conceivable that Eclipse will follow a similar pattern.
Even if Eclipse falls $30 million short of Spider-Man 2, it is not a failure by any means. The film will still have a hearty Independence Day run. And, having made its $68-million budget back in one day, no box office cynic can argue that Eclipse is lackluster.
indiewire
No comments:
Post a Comment