I had asked the question on how much New Moon would make its opening weekend, but did anyone think it would gross $140 million, making it the third largest opening of all time (behind The Dark Knight at $158 million and Spider-Man 3 at $151 million)? I didn’t guess THAT much, but really, it isn’t that surprising considering the Twilight saga’s huge following.
Here is the top five at the box office this weekend:
1. NEW! The Twilight Saga: New Moon (Summit Ent) – $140.7 mil; 4,024 theaters; $34,965 PT
2. NEW! The Blind Side (Warner Bros.) – $34.5 mil; 3,110 theaters; $11,096 PT
3. 2012 (Sony) – $26.5 mil; 3,408 theaters; $7,776 PT; $108.2 mil cume
4. NEW! Planet 51 (Sony) – $12.6 mil; 3,035 theaters; $4,152 PT
5. A Christmas Carol (Buena Vista) – $12.2 mil; 3,578 theaters; $3,418 PT; $79.7 mil cume
Of course, everything else pales in comparison, but opener The Blind Side fared pretty well with a decent second place offering, while the other newcomer Planet 51 floundered a bit in fourth place.
And for this coming Thanksgiving weekend, we’ve got a few choices, including: the Disney family comedy Old Dogs, starring Robin Williams and John Travolta; the actioner Ninja Assassins (which is self-explanatory); the expanded release of the delightful Fantastic Mr. Fox; and the dark Oscar contender The Road, starring Viggo Mortensen. If anything could beat New Moon, it might be Old Dogs (trailer below), but I highly doubt that will happen. The Edward-Bella-Jacob triangle should be on top again for a second week in a row.