'New Moon' Dominates Opening Day Record with $72.7 Million

Some people are saying, "I fear for society" simply because New Moon now holds the opening day record. Funny nobody was saying that when "Spider-man 3" did the same.

Personally, I don't fear for society. I agree that numbers can only mean so much. But I happen to be entertained by Twilight because I find it funny, in an extremely cynical sort of way. And, while I believe it's one of the worst examples of love for teenage girls to expose themselves to, I can understand why they're so taken with it. And it's for reasons that run back thousands and thousands of years. So I don't fear for society.

Anyway, New Moon won't touch TDK when it comes to final gross. It won't even get within $200 million, I'm guessing.

Yes, I am a member of the I don't understand the Twilight phenomenon. Maybe I'm bitter that the movie that has the biggest opening day and possibly the biggest opening weekend I won't be seeing in theaters. I guess I missed the bus on this one. Or it missed me. I don't weep for society, I weep for me. Because with this and Transformers 2 being the top movies of the year, my dream of quality Hollywood films that started with Star Trek and Up and The Hangover seem to be completely shattered.

Yeah, and dissapointing numbers for Planet 51, I liked its trailer.

2nd Weekend for Twilight? 75% DROP!

This week will help save the salvage that will be dealt next week as no new big movie is coming out and Twilight will suffer a huge drop which means it will be just like a 1st week of december

@mfan: sorry to disagree, but Batman is not a kid's comic book. Looks like you haven't seen the Nolan directed films.

Meh. I'm not a fan of Twilight, but I know millions of people are, and I can respect that. "Society" isn't going to hell in a handbasket; I loved The Hangover, but come on, that's probably another example of American crassness at its most refined. Not a masterpiece by any means. Anyways, back to New Moon – As with Twilight, curiousity will get the best of me and I'll probably check it out at AMCinema on a school day. That record won't last long; at least two films in 2010 have a good chance of shattering both the midnight and opening day records, and even possibly the weeekend record. I think Iron Man 2 and Toy Story 3 are gonna be huge, I could see Toy Story becoming the biggest opening weekend for an animated film hands down.

The only fear I have for society is that every really exciting, cool movie is going to be made to be some pointless art drama like movie. Then I won't watch any movie ever again.
"New Moon" relevant or not.

Oh, and it would be nice if everyone would just give up on the Dark Knight already. A movie ovverhyped and ovverrated because Christopher Nolan "knows" Batman so well. Actually he doesn't because Two Face is a recurring villian whose reign lasts for a long time. He's not one of Batman's worst enemies when he lasts for twenty five minutes. And he's supposed to have a split personality, not just a bad temper.
Yes it was still good but for god sakes it wasn't that good.

Star Trek was good but it was just as generic as other movies like Jumper, Wanted, etc. No different; just a generic remake like the rest.

Transformers 2 rules over all…though I feel sorry for Watchmen. That should've been the biggest movie of the year; what a hugely underappreciated, amazing movie. That's quality entertainment.

Oh, numbers do always lie. Intentional or not, most numbers lie. If they didn't then they wouldn't make a sequel to G.I. Joe. Personally I can't stand the "domestic" gross followed by "a flop," with no mention of international. It's becoming public knowledge that less than half of it usually is sold for budget or other reasons, but keeping it completly out of whole "Numbers" thing is really ridicoulous.
Not to mention never taking into account about merchanising, like Twilight, anything based off a comic or toy line, etc. Money money money here! Same thing with all Disney movies as well.

One last pointless comment; taking movies so seriously like some do is just ridicoulous. Humor is part of life; removing doesn't make a movie "brilliant." It makes it dull.

It doesn't matter.next year Iron man 2 is gonna break this record. and hopefully when Batman 3 comes it's gonna break all the records.Again!

Ugh, lame. But whatever… I'll be stunned if any of these Twilight movies make it in the top 5 highest grossing films of all time. I can't see any of them making near $500 million domestically, or a billion internationally.

…watch me end up being wrong.

Since I got defensive about Twilight, I can see why everyone else would get defensive. Buffy The Vampire Slayer has been made into an "adult" comic book, too. And there are "action figures" (dolls) If you like it, go for it. But stop pretending your slice of fun filled escapism is somehow better than other peoples slices. People who say they are the ones who decide what is cool, and what is not, are not acting in the best traditions of this country. We vote on those things, in this case, with our dollars. And yes Brad, I am confused. It looks to me like your article is hostile to Twilight based on some kind of ivory tower, gatekeeping pretext. But perhaps you could explain, better. Maybe you just are not making yourself clear. And I hope that when you go to pick up your check this week to pay ypur bills, your boss doesn't play a practical joke on you and just give you a good performance review instead. Money talks.

Also, Transformers ROTF only manged to increase it's gross from the first movie by, I can't remember, 25%? Don't expect Twilight to do much better. Probably a 20-30% increase for maybe $225 million or so.

@Chris138: Unless it grows more popular, Twilight is still considered a two quadrant movie, which means, in this case, that it primarily appeals to females over and under 25 years old. It shouldn't do more than half the business of Batman, Potter, et al., in theory.

Well, New Moon won't win any Oscars,neither will Transformers,but it has its many fans and we all knew it would kick ass at the box office and it will continue to. So bite it you asshats!

@mfan:

That is true, but how much more money can a sequel already over 700 million dollar movie (the 1st one) make? I think it was like 850 million. Actually thats a significant amount more, 25% or not (or 50 mil budget increase).
I think the New Moon trailer itself has wider appeal; I could see other people, like a ton of Underworld fans looking for more while they wait for Underworld 4 (because Michael Sheen is in it and it involves werewolves vs. vampires), wanting to see it.

I would have to say that The Dark Knight wasn't a "run of the mill" comic book action film, not like the Spider Man, F4, or the old Batman movies. But to say it was "so much more" I think would be pushing it. Heath Ledger rocked but so did Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, or Luke Goss (the villian) in Hellboy 2…I could keep going on and go to Watchmen and state a hundred people who did something close.
In my opinion, Heath Ledger did the joker perfect justice, but not anymore than Jackie Earl Haley did Rorsach in Watchmen. Both very impressive but it doesn't "The Dark Knight" so unbelievably amazing.
I should stop annihilating the Dark Knight as I really like it (until the last 1/2 an hour).

Back To New Moon, truthfully I'd rather watch Kristin Stewart being cold and empty for 3/4 of the movie than have to deal with and have a mild payoff in the last 1/4 then ever sitting through Kate Winslet being cold and empty for 4/4 of Revolutionary Road with the world's stupidiest outcome imaginable.

Maybe I really need to shut up, but there is only so much "The Dark Knight is gold" even a huge fan of Batman can take.

@mfan: The Dark Knight received a 94% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Obviously other people agree with me. It baffles me that you can seriously say that The Dark Knight was only enjoyed by fanboys. I am by no means a comic-book lover. The only comic I've ever read was Watchmen and that was after I saw the film.

I enjoy movies of all kinds, and The Dark Knight is a special film. If you want to see a real, effective vampire love story, go watch Let the Right One In.

1. Heath Ledger's performance, and the entire ensemble for that matter.
2. How dark an atmosphere Nolan was able to create with only a PG-13 rating.
3. The fascinating themes – How can you stop a villain if the only conceivable way is to destroy your own ethics and principles? Is evil really more contagious than good?
4. The influence of the film – Just wait a couple of years and you will see how many new superhero films try to replicate the dark and gritty atmosphere. Watchmen is already an example.
5. Nolan's script has some of the most memorable lines from a film in a really, really long time.

Those are some quick ones, and I don't really get your confusion about vampires?

Preach, Danny, preach.

Are you kidding, "think of what was so great"? That's what the 254 fresh reviews counted on Rotten Tomatoes are there for and for you to objectively observe each critic's analysis (or lazily read the summarized blurbs). This isn't even the proper thread to get into an in-depth analysis of TDK, but I think simply put: one clearly does not understand any makings of a quality film to have the audacity to label it "juvenile escapism" and compare its quality to Twilight. That's down to the level of hacks who call themselves critics like Armond White, who nonsensically juxtapose random phrases of the English language and call it a professional criticism (which coincidentally happens to be on any film that usually gets a title like "one of the best reviewed films of the year").

Last year you couldn't walk into the next room without hearing about The Dark Knight. Add to this the fact that I work at a movie theatre and am studying Film at university. I like to think I'm a sociable enough person to say that out of the hundreds and hundreds of opinions I heard about the film (with friends, family, at school, at work, etc.), I have counted a grand total of 4 people who "gave it a bad review". They are in no way black-listed in my books because their criticisms are their own opinions (which they are entitled to). They are things I would label as irrelevant when trying to analyse the film, such as "it was too dark – both tone and lighting" or "I didn't like the Joker."

I'm not the type of cinephile to buy into phrases like "the Citizen Kane of comic book films" or "a landmark modern masterpiece of the decade" blindly. But anyone who witnessed it, understands the concept of the moving picture, and had a functioning brain capacity realized that every aspect of the film is recognized as top quality, if not as close as possible to perfection. That includes Nolan's writing and direction, an incredible ensemble of actors led by Bale and Ledger, Zimmer and Newton Howard's score, the cinematography, editing, set design, effects including sound, visual and stunt, and hell even the make-up.

Trying to get back on topic, I was at a party last night and New Moon was inevitably brought up by some of the ladies I knew there (all aged 18-20). These ladies are hard-core die-hard, self-proclaimed "Twi-hards". Any more hard-core would result in camping out and meticulous costume recreations. Anyway, don't even ask me how TDK came up, but not only did they admit that it is an excellent film, they said phrases such as, "Twilight is just for the ladies" or "The Dark Knight is actually a well-made film while Twilight just entertains us. They wouldn't show Twilight in a film class."

This is just the way *I* see things on the topic. Clearly, we're all entitled to our opinions. I don't mean to sound mean-spirited or hateful but clearly someone is in a self-inflicted minority. But I respect others' opinions, which means to say I would rather critically view and shot-for-shot analyse films like The Dark Knight, Citizen Kane, Casablanca, Pulp Fiction, or The Godfather instead of watching the Twilight movies or stalking Miley Cyrus.

PS – Apologies for the length and some OT-ness. I felt like this was a worthy rant.

@Seiko: iI'm scared…Transformers 2? The Dark Knight may have not stayed fathful to what the fan boys know of in the comics, but the story, the casting, the acting, the plot line, the film was well done. If we are talking balanced quality work Dark Knight wins bar none over Twilight (1 or 2), and Transformers 2, this is undebatable…

The Twilight Saga is the Transformers of todays generation. But, you know, for girls instead of boys… Incredibly badly developed, terrible performances that somehow managed to make it's stars famous (not that you have to be talented to be famous, I know that!) and make a shit load of money.

It will be over by the end of the decade and when we all start remembering from the 2000's, Twilight and Transformers will reign supreme as the 'WTF were we thinking' category.

I mean, they're clearly target towards teenagers and there's something about this stage of our life (been there, done that) is that when it's over, IT IS OVER! Everything before is for kids, because when you're teenager you're 'totally the most adult person like EVER, you know'. And then you go to college, you start to ACTUALLY grow up and remember 'God, the things I liked!'

When this whole 'Transformers-Twilight' generation finally grow up, they'll learn to like of good movies like Godfather, Gone with the Wind, Citizen Kane and, yes, The Dark Knight.

@Hilda: The original Transformers was nominated in 3 technical categories one year.

New Moon's opening day takings are only big because of advance bookings. I suspect it will burn out quite quickley when negative word of mouth spreads on Twitter. The Dark Knight on the other hand was an all rounder.
News about Heath Ledger's death + Anticipation + Positive Word of Mouth = Box Office sensation.

I mean take for instance The Hangover, nobody saw that coming as it lacked star power or brand identity, but because of Word of Mouth, It has overtaken Beverly Hills Cop's r rated comedy record.

I was just reading somewhere that New Moon made about 140 million dollars over the weekend. That's an outstanding amount of money, but the fact that it made over half its gross in the first 24-hours, while films like Dark Knight, Pirates, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Harry Potter, and Transformers tend to make less than that in there openning days and still earn well over the much sought after 300 million mark. A mark that Twilight will never see. I'm sure that Twilight could very well end-up with 70 or 80 percent drop-off next weekend.

This does however point something out, women can never be underestimated as a demographic by hollywood. As more guys my age stay at home and play video-games instead of going to the movies, then there will be huge female audience that can be cattered to in exchange.

does this say something about our male/to female population ratio ? FEMALE>MALE lol. BTW people shouldnt get upset even if it deos beat TDK overall gross, because these two movies are as far apart as they can be, both in terms of content, and content quality. its best to not make any comparisons.

I believe strongly that if over a million people like something, there must be something good about it. My point of comparing Twilight to other films was because I believe any criticism levieled against one fan based movie/franchise is equally valid for ALL fan based movies/franchises. For people who comfort themselves that Twilight won't make TDK numbers, since Twilight's audience is almost all girls, if it makes half of what TDK makes, it will be proven to be just as popular with girls as TDK was (sorry for picking on TDK, but that's where the discussion has gone). This means the theory that "quality" films generally make more money will be wrong in this case. Lastly, for people thinking Twilight will just go away, I've been tracking it carefully because it's more popular than even my girl! I can report that it's popularity is still building. From reading the plot synopses on Wikipedia, it's clear that not only are two more movies on the way, but the first four movies will end in a way that can very easily lead to another four movies. As for it's industry impact. This franchise is going to singlehandedly make Summit Entertainment into a major studio. They have been making some misteps, but they are learning from their mistakes and are improving. I wasn't going to see Twilight in theaters, but with so many people disrespecting it, I feel it deserves my financial support, and I'll definitely drag someone along with me.

@mfan: I think you miss understood the argument, its not that there is a problem with making a film targeted at a specific audience. Its the fact that it doesn't really look to appeal to anyone else or takes the time to craft something that respects its audience. TDK took about 3 years to be made and the time dedicated to the film is shown, NM took less then a year and it really does show.
Yes I can understand that Summit is a fairly small studio that needs a franchise like Twilight (2nd biggest hit is Knowing for God's sake) but I think it makes more sense to let something grow with anticipation while working to produce something good, I still believe in the importance of WOM. (Notice how ROTF had a near identical 5 days to TDK but made over $130 million LESS!)
Also something that people forget that only 52% of the audience was male and that an even split between those over and under 25 years old on TDK's opening weekend.
(http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=2504&p=.htm)
So it was as close to appealing to everyone as it possibly could get, which NM doesn't have going for it.
Look as a kid with 3 sisters, I get the appeal don't agree but understand. Though only one of my sisters actually wants to see the movie because the other two don't think the film is well made. So it has nothing to do with genders or target audiences…
New Moon just looks terrible and the 40% drops it faced on Saturday and Sunday is an indication I'm not the only one who thinks it a lazy cash grab.

That Britney comment seemed to come out of nowhere.

I don't think that 10+ years equates to "tapping into a moment in pop culture". She pretty much defines pop culture.

Although it got picked up by less theaters than the Dark Knight, it had more showing times at any given theater. It has also set that record, and is it worth squabbling over running time? 30 minutes less than the Dark Knight gives a few more showing times as well.

Actually when i said "quality" entertainment I was referring to Watchmen, but I quess I could mean Transformers 2 as well. Truthfully I wish people had more of a sense of humor. How can you not laugh when the general guy is going on about how America is going to handle the situation and the Transformer says "This fool is terrible misinformed." Funny yes, but correct. Point is, the whole movie was correct. Considering Transformers know about Earth because of the internet and stuff, they would get information on how to be ghetto. others would take life more seriously becaue of a higher position, like Optimus.
What I am saying is that as ridicoulous as those movies are, they're really not unrealistic. People want them to be so serious without the jokes, but that's not life. That's not the way it would happen, at least not in my opinion.

Oh, what about New Moon? Same thing. A teenage girl is cold and empty over her ex-boyfriend. Kind of silly? Yes. Realistic, probably pretty accurate? Yes.

On the subject of "god the things I liked," when I was far younger…Independence Day, Men In Black, Dragonball Z…I actually appreciate them more now than ever. Men In Black is still by far one of the better comic book adaptations…

@Ella:
lol'd