Record Books Rewritten with ‘New Moon’ Opening Weekend Sales
‘New Moon’ opening weekend sales
Never underestimate the power of teenage girls. Variety reports that the “Twilight Saga: New Moon” audience was 80 percent female (and 50 percent of those females are younger than 21), and the “New Moon” opening day sales now top the box office charts with more than $ 72 million in the US.
New Moon opening weekend sales shot it straight to third all time. “New Moon” pulled over $ 140 million at home, blasting weekend estimates of $ 85 to $ 100 million right out of the water. Only “Spiderman 3″ and “The Dark Knight” had bigger opening weekends at the US box office.
‘New Moon’ at midnight and around the world
“New Moon” also pulled in the most money for midnight ticket sales, earning $ 26.3 million at the box office Thursday in the US before the opening Friday shows. It’s likely those who were short of cash paid for their tickets with an allowance advance rather than a loan till payday, but filmmakers and theaters don’t care where the money comes from.
“New Moon” got into the record books for worldwide sales as well, grossing almost $ 259 million worldwide (including US sales). That makes it the seventh highest grossing opening weekend of all time. The first “Twilight” didn’t even make it to the top 50.
Girls night out
A lot of women headed to the theaters this weekend; 59 percent of those who saw “The Blind Side” were women. “The Blind Side” came in second at the box office for weekend sales, making $ 34.5 million. If you wanted to find where the guys went at the theater, you would have a good chance of finding them where “2012″ was playing. “2012″ came in third in weekend sales, with $ 26.5 million.
So if women fueled “New Moon” and “The Blind Side” sales, and men bought “2012″ tickets (an assumption), then kids rounded out the top 5 for U.S. “Planet 51″ came in fourth place with 2.6 million, with “Disney’s A Christmas Carol” making $ 12.2 during it’s third weekend at the box office.