After storming the box office this weekend, Summit’s newest “Twilight” movie looks on track to gross nearly $300 million domestically.
Richie Fay, Summit’s distribution chief, told TheWrap over the weekend that he expects “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1” to end up taking in about the same amount as “New Moon” grossed in 2009. He said it was too soon to give a definitive projection.
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After this weekend, when box-office watchers can evaluate the drop between opening weekend audiences and second-week audiences, better estimates will be available.
For now, though, one executive at a rival studio said that "Breaking Dawn" is "certainly on track to do $285 million" domestically.
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“New Moon,” the second in the “Twilight” franchise, grossed $296.6 million domestically and $413.2 internationally.
Both "Twilight" movies opened on the same weekend – “New Moon” opened Nov. 20, 2009 and “Breaking Dawn” opened on Nov. 18 – and both opened to similar box office figures.
“Breaking Dawn” had a $139.5 million opening weekend compared to “New Moon’s” $142.8 million.
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But CinemaScore, the moviegoer surveying firm, said audiences liked “New Moon” better than they liked “Breaking Dawn.” “New Moon” had a score of “A-,” while “Breaking Dawn” received a middling “B+.”
Among the core audience of females, however, “Breaking Dawn” scored an “A-.”
In between those movies, “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” opened on June 30, 2010 to $157.6 million. But because it opened on a Wednesday, it had a 5-day opening weekend, rather than a 3-day one.
It went on to gross $300.5 million domestically and $397.9 million internationally.