November 23

New Moon Shines at box office - More like kicks butt!
Biting off the third best weekend opening of all time with $142.8 million from 4,024 theaters, Summit Entertainment's female-fueled "New Moon" explodes the myth that you need an all-audience film to do that level of biz, or that fanboys hold all the power.

At the international B.O., the vampire romancer bowed to $118.1 million from 6,681 prints in 26 territories for a sparkling worldwide opening total of $258.8 million.

"New Moon" -- grossing nearly double "Twilight's" $69.6 million debut a year ago -- began breaking records not long after it unspooled at 12:01 a.m. Friday, securing itself a spot in the pantheon of hit franchise pics and marking a huge victory for Summit.

Sequel grossed $26.3 million in midnight runs, besting record-holder "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" ($22.2 million).

Full Friday number clocked in at $72.7 million -- including midnight grosses -- the best opening day in history and beating the $67.2 million earned by "Dark Knight" on its first Friday.

Heading into the weekend, rival studios believed "New Moon" would have trouble going north of $110 million, since it is driven by only two out of four quadrants of the moviegoing audience: Females under 25, and those over. Even Summit execs might have agreed.

But the ferocious appetite for the franchise among girls and younger women proved those predictions wrong. Of the females turning out, a full 50% were under 21.

"This blew away a lot of preconceived notions about who you should play to, and how you get to a certain group," Summit prexy of distribution Richie Fay said.

Despite Friday's huge numbers, "New Moon" declined only about 41% on Saturday, the same drop "Twilight" had seen. That indicates that the fanbase has grown, since "New Moon" did so much more for the weekend.

For years, studios have relied on fanboy-driven films or families for big opening grosses. Thanks to long lives, female properties can ultimately see big grosses; they just haven't opened so big.

"Twilight" cumed $192.8 million domestically and $192.2 million at the foreign B.O. for a worldwide total of $385 million. All eyes will be on "New Moon" to see by how much it might eclipse that total.

For the last year, Summit has carried out a well-orchestrated marketing campaign for the sequel, directed by Chris Weitz and returning Kristen Stewart and teen heartthrobs Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner in the lead roles.

Sales of Stephenie Meyers' four-book "Twilight" series also have continued to climb. Two years ago, 1 million copies had sold worldwide. Today, that figure stands at 85 million.

As in the U.S., "New Moon" is shining overseas, outgunning or matching franchises "Harry Potter" and "The Lord of the Rings." It scored the top opening of all time in Australia ($13.3 million), New Zealand ($2.6 million) and the Philippines ($2.1 million). "New Moon" generated enormous business in Europe, led by the U.K. ($18.7 million), France ($17 million), Spain ($13.7 million) and Italy ($13 million). It also generated plenty of interest in Latin America. Summit owns worldwide rights to the film, but it is being released via local distribs overseas.

Summit releases the next title in the franchise, "Eclipse," on June 30, 2010. Just as "New Moon" worked with femme fans, so did "Blind Side." Film received an A+ from CinemaScore.

Warners prexy of domestic distribution Dan Fellman said that 75% of the audience was over age 25, meaning it got older women not so distracted by "New Moon."