Sources tell Gossip Cop, Summit Entertainment is set to announce that “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” broke the record for biggest midnight opening last night, beating “The Dark Knight” and the top “Harry Potter” franchise performer.
WE’VE JUST RECEIVED THIS FROM SUMMIT…
THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON has set a new record for opening midnight shows with an estimated gross of $26.270 million playing at 3,514 theaters for a per theater average of $7,476. THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON passes HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE ($22.2 million) to take the number one spot.* Following POTTER is DARK KNIGHT ($18.5 million).
In addition to THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON, last night Summit re-issued TWILIGHT in theaters. The film grossed $1.3 million playing at 2,057 theaters for a per theater average of $631. The re-issue of Twilight came in just outside the top 15 for the week this is notable especially considering that all came from just 9 PM Thursday night shows.
HitFlix.com No one expected "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" to disappoint at the box office, but even Summit Entertainment has to be surprised by the massive opening the sequel garnered from midnight shows across the country. Distributors are still submitting their grosses but sources tell HitFix "New Moon" has set a new record and may have made as much as $25 million from its midnight launch.
To compare, previous record holder "The Dark Knight" made $18.4 million in over 3,000 theaters, but some of those screens were of the IMAX variety which charge higher ticket prices thereby inflating the overall gross. Not jumping on the IMAX bandwagon (so far), only makes "New Moon's" gross even more remarkable.