Moviefone, as well as other outlets, are reporting that 'New Moon' broke the record for opening day sales.
'New Moon' raked in $72.7 million on Friday in 4,024 theaters, topping the previous opening day best, 'The Dark Knight's' $67.2 on July 18, 2008, according to a report in Variety.
The first-day box office totals were aided by midnight showings in 3,514 theaters, which generated $26.3 million. The numbers tell of a 100 percent gain for 'New Moon' over the opening of 'Twilight,' which made $36 million on its first day en route to a three-day weekend of $69.6 million.
The Los Angeles Times has been talking to people who have been watching the ticket sales today for New Moon:
By 5 p.m., the movie had already sold more than $50 million worth of tickets in the U.S. and Canada. When evening shows are included, the total will likely be more than $70 million, the people said.
Given the huge amount of pent-up interest among fans, who are rushing out to theaters on opening day, ticket sales are expected to drop significantly on Saturday and Sunday. Nonetheless, a total weekend gross of more than $110 million is all but certain and more than $120 million is very possible. That would give “New Moon” the biggest weekend gross for any movie this year and make it one of the top five pictures of all time at the domestic box office, not accounting for ticket price inflation.
Summit has announced that The Twilight Saga: New Moon has officially set a new all-time midnight box office record, taking in $26.27M from 3514 theaters.
This shatters The Dark Knight’s $18.4M midnight debut for a 3-day weekend. It also easily surpasses the all-time record for midnight showings which was held by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which took in $22.2M on a Tuesday night on its way to a 5-day weekend total of $158M. The Dark Knight went on to take in $67.17M that opening day, dropped 29.1% from Friday to Saturday to bring in another $47.65M, and ended with $43.6M on Sunday for an opening weekend total of $158.4M.
Hi everybody! I wanted to apprise you all of a few upcoming things. You know I've been doing the hermit thing this last year, in so far as media is concerned, and I'm not changing that now, but I am making an exception. I'm doing this for a good reason: I am so pleased and amazed and thrilled with what Chris Weitz has done with New Moon that I want to talk about it, and to show my support for him. And since I'm only doing one interview, better make it big. Really big. So....I will be on The Oprah Winfrey Show on Friday, November 13th. Check the local listings on Oprah's website to find out what time it will be on where you live.
Of course, most of the questions for Oprah will be designed for a broader audience than just die-hard Twilight fans, and I imagine people who read this site and other fansites will already know most of the answers. To rectify this, I'm going to answer your more specific questions on-line. The official Twilight Saga website (www.TheTwilightSaga.com) will be taking any New Moon movie-related questions you might have for me, and then I'll answer those most frequently asked. I'll post the answers on the Twilight Saga website and also here on my own site.
Questions can be submitted to TheTwilightSaga.com from noon (Eastern Standard Time) on Monday, November 9th through noon Tuesday, November 10th. The answers will be posted Monday, November 16th—or New Moon Premiere Day, as it is known around my house. (Details about submitting the questions will be posted first thing Monday morning at TheTwilightSaga.com, you can also get more information below.) I'm so very excited that you'll all get to see New Moon in just two weeks! Then you'll see what I'm going on about. Until then, think up some good questions for me.
Stephenie Meyer today confirms that there's a deal in the works for her novel The Host to be made into a motion picture.
Hey guys, great news! The Host is on its way to the big screen:
I'm so excited to be working with Nick Weschler, and Steve and Paula Mae Schwartz to bring The Host to a visual format. They've all been a dream to work with, so lovely and collaborative, and I feel like we're in a really good place to make a great movie together. And then to have Andrew Niccol writing and directing? Truly awesome. If you've never seen Gattaca, go watch it now. One of my favorite movies of all time. It's such a great example of character driven science fiction, which is ideal for The Host, no? I'm having an absolute blast imagining different dream casts, which I would post if people didn't take my silly blogs so seriously these days. I'm looking forward to seeing the cast lists you come up with in the fansite forums, and if any of them match mine. So, very exciting. Yay Host!
From StephenieMeyer.com:
