14 DAY TRIAL // “New Moon,” the second film in “The Twilight Saga,” may have been trashed by critics upon release (and even by some fans later on), but it continues to make a lot of money, remaining atop of the North American box-office for the second consecutive week. As MTV informs, the film made an additional $42.5 million over the 3-day weekend, getting very close to hitting the $300 million mark domestically.
However, a drop in popularity is already noted, with some industry insiders even saying that “New Moon” went down 70 percent in the first week of release, which is clearly a development Summit would have expected to happen much later. Chances are that the film drops out of top five altogether in just a couple of weeks, but until then, hopes are high it will manage to continue making money at the same rate as it has until now.
Overall, the 5-day total for “New Moon” rises to $66 million, which takes the domestic total to $230.7 million. Internationally, the film has fared somewhat worse, with just $243 million in ticket sales so far. These numbers bring the total to $473.7 million in grossing for a film that was made on a rather “modest” budget of somewhere under $30 million, as speculation in the industry would have it. Add to these numbers revenue from merchandise and DVD sales, and the overall figure is certainly something to smile about.
Still, the supremacy of the vampire saga is already being threatened and, as MTV points out, it’s not even by newcomer “Ninja Assassin,” the much-hyped action film starring pop star Rain. Sandra Bullock’s “The Blind Side,” while losing in terms of ticket sales over the entire weekend, dominated the charts on Thanksgiving Day. Comparatively speaking, Bullock’s film is also running on fewer screens than “New Moon.”
“Despite losing the weekend, ‘The Blind Side’ did successfully dethrone ‘New Moon’ for a brief time over the holiday. On Thanksgiving Day, the family drama earned a first-place finish over ‘New Moon,’ which slipped into second place. The fans (and fangs) came out again to give ‘New Moon’ the $42.5 million weekend victory check, but the $40.1 million second-place finish for ‘The Blind Side’ is nothing to scoff at. Between this film’s success and that of ‘The Proposal’ last summer, Sandra Bullock is having a very nice year at the box office,” MTV says.