Brack

The drop off might be huge for the 3-day, but next week is thanksgiving, so it should make a good amount of change for over the 5-day weekend.

BJacks

They may have done an informal greenlight closer to opening when tracking was so high, but they were officially waiting for the first numbers to come in. Hardwicke has mentioned 150M as the number that would trigger the two sequels.

BJacks

The fact is that Summit -- as a young distributor -- simply doesn't know how to market a film. "Twilight" succeeded in spite of themselves.

Supermallet

You don't think the movies opening for Thanksgiving won't take that business away? I still am willing to bet next week's drop will be huge for Twilight.

danstheday

Why would they even ask her to do the sequels. The movie was o.k. but if they had a director that gave the movie a better visual style the movie would have been so much better than what is was, while o.k. it was just blah! The movie had the 37 million $ budget which I find very mind blowing since there were no big stars in it and it had a t.v. movie feel to it and the special effects were horrible.

Seantn

I think that Twilight will be pulled from theaters before next weekend because Summit is so scared of how big the drop off for Twilight will be. I hear that they're canceling the sequels and pulling out of the movie industry altogether because they can't handle how big the drop-off might just be.

Brack

Aside from Four Christmases, I'd say no.

mdc3000

Correct. They commissioned SCRIPTS for the next TWO but didn't officially greenlight New Moon until just the other day.

riley_dude

Twilight Mania is here.
From The Soup:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnGXLnd6XGA

tommy28

Twilight' sucks up $70.6M in box office debut (AP)

LOS ANGELES - The vampire romance "Twilight" drained the box office in its opening weekend, taking in $70.6 million.

Catherine Hardwicke's film also enjoyed the biggest opening ever for a female director, blowing away the previous standard of $41.1 million set by Mimi Leder 's " Deep Impact " in 1998.

Drawing from its huge fan base of teenage girls, who fell for Stephenie Meyer's novel of forbidden love between brooding vampire Edward Cullen and bookish high schooler Bella Swan , "Twilight" made a whopping $20,636 per theater, according to Sunday morning estimates.

And the fangirls will get another taste soon enough: Summit Entertainment, which released "Twilight," announced during the weekend that it's going ahead with production of "New Moon," based on the second book in Meyer's internationally best-selling series. Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart will return as its star-crossed lovers, but whether Hardwicke will be at the helm again is still being determined.

The laid-back Hardwicke, who went bodyboarding at sunset Saturday to take her mind off this high-pressure weekend, said Sunday morning that she was heading to a meeting later in the day to discuss her possible involvement in "New Moon."

"I want to be sure that it's going to be done right. I don't want to rush into it," she said. "It's not like ` Friday the 13th ' or ` Halloween ,' you can't just do it super fast and knock another one out. I want to understand their plans and all that."

Hardwicke, whose previous films include "Thirteen" and " Lords of Dogtown ," also said she was thrilled about the prospect that the success of "Twilight" will inspire other women and young girls to pursue a career in filmmaking.

"I hope not just women but all minorities get enthused and encouraged by it. I look at the ( Directors Guild of America ) calendar, at the pictures of everyone that had different movies each month, and it's usually 22-29 different directors, and almost every month there's one female and maybe one minority," she said. "We've been having a lot of events, talking to a lot of fans, and so many kids of course are madly in love with Robert but tons of kids of every kind (and) girls are coming up to me and saying `I want to direct now, I'm writing a screenplay now, you're my inspiration.' I think it's great that people are getting excited."

The big opening for "Twilight" also helps put Summit Entertainment on the map, said Richie Say, the company's president of domestic distribution. Summit has only been around since April 2007 and "Twilight," its sixth release, cost just $37 million to make.

"It certainly says what we've been saying all along, that we can do more with less," he said. When Warner Bros . pushed " Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince " from this weekend to a July 2009 debut, and Summit jumped to move "Twilight" from Dec. 12 into that spot on the schedule, "that decision was made in a day. I don't know that the major studios have that ability."

The tremendous take for "Twilight" far exceeded expectations, which had been set around $50 million.

"Teen girls rule the earth," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers. "If you look back at the ` Hannah Montana' movie , how well that did, and now this movie, the teen girl audience will never be ignored again or underestimated. It was always teen boys who were the coveted ones, but someone finally caught on to the idea that girls love movies, too, and if you create something that they're into, that they're passionate about, they will come out in big numbers and drive the box office."

The other major debut of the weekend, Walt Disney 's 3-D animated "Bolt," made $27 million to take third place. Featuring the voices of John Travolta and Miley Cyrus, "Bolt" follows the cross-country journey of a dog who plays a superhero on television, but sadly realizes he has no magical powers once he gets separated from his "person."

Chuck Viane, Disney's head of distribution, said "Twilight" took a bite out of everyone's box office this weekend. If the vampire saga hadn't been around, Viane said, Disney would have expected an opening of at least $30 million.

"Obviously we believe in the Thanksgiving holiday in a big, big way," he said. "We've always viewed this as one of those 10-day marathons between opening day and the end of the Thanksgiving weekend."

Last weekend's No. 1 movie, " Quantum of Solace ," came in second with $27.4 million. The latest James Bond extravaganza has now grossed $109.5 million, and it crossed the $100 million mark faster than any other film in the franchise, said Rory Bruer, head of distribution for Sony . It's also made $309 million internationally.

"We're in great shape. We're way ahead of where we were with ` Casino Royale ,'" said Bruer, referring to the last Bond picture, which also starred Daniel Craig as a more visceral incarnation of 007.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday

Joxer

Ok, here's my take on the who Twilight Movie disaster. I was SO excited to see it until about 2 min into the movie when I realized that they COMPLETE BUTCHERED IT! The movie has done so well not because of Summit's marketing, but because Stephanie Meyer wrote one hell of an awesome book series. I am a HUGE fan of the books, but I left the theater pissed..... how could Stephanie promote THAT as the visual representation of her hard work.

The basic skeletal structure of the book is still there, but the meat of the story was completely changed. They even changed stuff that didn't need to change. Also.....



All in all, I'm just HUGELY disappointed in the movie. It makes me want to grab my video camera and shoot it myself just to prove that it can be done right!

The Bus

I went to see this on Friday knowing not much else besides the fact that the book is a weird male power fantasy about vampires, albeit written by a woman.

I haven't heard this much shrieking in theatres since Episode IV was re-released.

It's not a bad film at all, if you go in with low expectations. If you want to see a great vampire movie, go see Let the Right One In. But if you end up seeing this, it won't kill you.

kantonburg

I was in the same boat. My wife has read the series several times so I knew the basic premise. I actually enjoyed it. It wasn't great, but I left feeling I didn't get robbed. But seriously if you've read the book how can you expect the movie follow it to the word? Do they ever? My wife mentioned the same thing how she was a bit miffed it didn't follow the story completely then she mentioned the movies never do and still enjoyed it.

I never thought I'd ever like the movie much less want to see the follow up, but I do. I've been keeping up with the thread and I'm actually a little shocked to how much people want this movie to bomb.

kantonburg

1. Twilight $70,553,000
2. Quantum of Solace $27,400,000
3. Bolt $27,000,000

Seems to me the've done it right

cisman

I was in the same boat as many guys. I saw it with my wife. I've never read the book but got plently of fill-in from my wife before.

I must say that I enjoyed the move as well. I love vampire/werewolf movies.

While this didn't leave me with the freaking awesome movie feeling like Blade I and II or Underworld I and II I still thought it was pretty cool.

I didn't think the special effects were that bad at all. Sometimes more can be done with less IMO.

Look at Star Wars.

Anyways coming from someone whose never read the books I hope it does well and a sequel is greenlit!

I just might read the rest of the books although I enjoy movies more so I might wait like I did with Harry Potter

Nickee

I saw it. I really liked and, yes, I will be going back to see it again.

I like the books a lot but I also believe they aren’t that well written and can be improved on. Part of the problem I have with the books is that, for the most part, they are told from Bella’s point of view and since she is 17 it can get a little irritating. The movie only had a couple of voiceovers from the Bella narration in the book which was an improvement.

I think the relationship between Bella and Edward was well done. I thought the actors did a good job with their chemistry and interactions.

I went to one of the fan sites to check on the obsessive fans’ reactions and it was pretty funny (and expected). They were obsessed by all the little details that were left out – “…I can’t believe there was no rocking chair in Bella’s room…they didn’t show Bella cooking at all..” I stopped reading after those comments. But I think the majority were happy with it.

As for how well it will do this weekend – I guess we will see how many of them go back and bring their friends and mothers and friend's mothers...

Kal-El

That didn't bother me quite as much because a lot of the book is in Bella's head. And narration would only get you so far as to how that particular situation couldn't have happened.

The Bus

I liked Twilight more than Underworld.

Trevor

Underworld was ok, but incredibly disappointing. It could have been so much better.

Blade did rock though.

riley_dude

I know two people that went over the weekend. One was a fan of the books, one was dragged along.
They both hated it because of the horrible dialogue.
Drop off will be big because Bad word of mouth will travel fast.

Trevor

5.3 on imdb is pretty poor considering all the book fangirls who probably voted 10 before they saw it.

riley_dude

At TV.com the girls are rating it 5 out of 5 Stars. Hmmmm.

Seantn

A lot of the 1's are probably people who voted 1 knowing they'll never see it. That happens with other films that have internet backlash as well.

Joxer

I'm sorry, you seem to have not thoroughly read my post

wait till next weeks numbers come out. Once word of mouth gets around about how they butchered it... it will tank.

Boba Fett

I saw it, had low expectations, and ended up being entertained. Ironically there was far less disappointment leaving this film than there was with Quantum of Solace, which I'd rate as a slightly better movie. It was entirely above average the whole way through so I'd give it a C+; whereas Bond had great action and a stellar cast but a story that went essentially nowhere.

For a teen movie, it's very good, and I have no problem with other movies like this, considering most of the stuff I see marketed towards that age group to be thoughtless crap.

Will I read the books? No. Would I see a sequel? Most likely.