14 DAY TRIAL // Movie studios may have it harder in recession, but at least Summit Entertainment has not a single thing to worry about as far as movie grossing is concerned. “New Moon,” the second installment in “The Twilight Saga” opened to impressive numbers over the weekend at the North American box office, becoming the third biggest opening ever in the history of cinema, Los Angeles Times informs.
The film, the continuation of the 2008 “Twilight,” which introduced the love story of a vampire and a teenage girl to the world, was trashed by critics and even managed to garner some negative responses from fans as well. Still, numbers indicate beyond a trace of a doubt that the majority of fans still loved it – or, at least, that they paid good money to see it.
“‘The Twilight Saga: New Moon’ posted the third-largest opening in domestic box-office history, not accounting for ticket price inflation, having sold an estimated $140.7 million worth of tickets in the US and Canada from Friday through Sunday. Only Warner Bros.’ ‘The Dark Knight’ and Sony’s ‘Spider-Man 3’ had bigger openings. Summit Entertainment’s ‘New Moon’ smashed the previous record for a movie opening outside the summer event movie season and more than doubled the launch of the first ‘Twilight’ movie last year,” the aforementioned movie-oriented publication says.
Even if the title of third biggest opener ever is given without consideration to ticket price inflation, critics also point out that the movie’s success is partially due to the fact that it opened nationwide on the same date. Skeptics even speculate that this decision had a lot to do with the fact that, by going with a limited release, the film’s grossing would be hurt by having fans talked out of seeing it by negative reviews.
Be that as it may, “New Moon” was this weekend’s big winner at the box office. “For Summit, which at less than 3 years old has very few hits under its belt, ‘New Moon’ is a massive financial success. The movie grossed an additional $118.1 million in 25 foreign countries, giving it a worldwide launch total of $258.8 million. Studios typically keep about half of their films’ domestic box-office receipts and 40% from overseas. ‘New Moon’ cost just under $50 million to produce, making it the least expensive movie ever to open to more than $200 million worldwide,” the same media outlet says.