Twilight: New Moon Breaks Midnight and Opening-Weekend Records

Twlight: New Moon became the number one midnight theatrical showing of all time. On top of the midnight records, it earned staggering box-office numbers this weekend, taking over the number three spot for the biggest opening weekend of all time.

The Twilight Saga: New Moon took in $26.3 million last Thursday (Nov. 19) at midnight, surpassing this past summer’s midnight record holder, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which earned $22.2 million, and pushing 2008’s The Dark Knight into third place with its $18.5 million midnight box office.

More than this, New Moon had the third highest-grossing weekend in Hollywood history, and had the biggest opening day ever, with an estimated $72.7 million earned at the box office by end of day Friday, Nov. 20. Its November opening day beat out previous big earners, 2008’s The Dark Knight and this past summer’s Transformers 2, both of which opened in the historically higher-grossing summer months.

Its record breaking weekend was the third biggest overall behind The Dark Knight and then Spider-Man 3, coming in at a total international and domestic gross to date of $258.8 million.

It also doubled its prequel’s opening day total of $36 million. Plus, the U.K.’s The Independent reported that male attendees were up to 20 percent from 17 percent for the prequel. And 50 percent of the audience was over the age 21.

No doubt The Twilight Saga continues to be a meteoric success. And if imitation, and satirization, is the sincerest form of flattery, check out CollegeHumor.com’s spoof, Twilight: Three Wolf Moon, featuring Parks and Recreation’s Aubrey Plaza:

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