NEW MOON NEWS – New Moon Tears,Breaks, Shreds, Smashes,Shatters = Decimates Opening Weekend US Box Office Records!!!

YEP! You’ve heard of it and you’ve read about it and now we’re bring you MORE of it!! WOOOOOOHOOOOOOO!!!

From MTV News

1. “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” ($72.7 million)
2. “The Blind Side” ($10.9 million)
3. “2012″ ($8.1 million)
4. “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” ($3.6 million)
5. “Planet 51″ ($3.2 million)

With “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” in over 4,000 theaters nationwide, there was virtually no chance that the continued romance of Edward Cullen and Bella Swan would fall anywhere short of first place — but perhaps no one could have predicted just how far ahead of the competition “New Moon” would end up.

The second “Twilight” installment has already shattered records and expectations by earning $26.3 million from midnight showings alone, decimating the record previously held by “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.” Additionally, “New Moon” enjoyed the single most lucrative opening day in the history of cinema with $62.2 million, a record previously held by “The Dark Knight.” Combined with the midnight intake, “New Moon” has already earned $72.7 million — and the weekend isn’t even over.

LA Times

Though the debut day for “New Moon” was unprecedented, the full opening weekend will probably be merely massive. Ticket sales for the first “Twilight” film, which opened on the same weekend last year, plunged 41% on the Saturday after it opened. “New Moon” will probably see an even bigger drop, given the massive amount of interest that helped it set a record as the biggest pre-seller on online ticketing services Fandango and MovieTickets.com.

Nonetheless, a total weekend gross of more than $110 million is all but certain and more than $120 million is very possible. That would give “New Moon” the biggest domestic weekend gross for any film this year, the biggest for an opening outside the summer movie season, and one of the top five of all time, not accounting for inflation.

Ticket sales from the 25 other countries where “New Moon” is opening this weekend will almost certainly push the worldwide weekend gross to more than $150 million.

Summit spent only $50 million to make “New Moon,” including tax incentives from Canada, where it was produced. Even including marketing costs, the picture is certain to be profitable based on ticket sales alone, even before Summit starts making money from DVD and other post-theatrical markets.

Studios usually keep about half the revenue a movie collects from theatrical ticket sales.

ABC News

The vampire romance sequel earned $72.7 million across the United States and Canada on Friday, a figure that includes record-breaking midnight sales of $26.3 million, said the film’s closely held distributor Summit Entertainment.

The old record for a single-day opening was $62.2 million, held by last year’s “Batman” sequel “The Dark Knight,” which went on to become the second-biggest grossing movie of all time in North America before accounting for inflation.

Such heights could be difficult for the “Twilight” sequel to attain. Still, industry observers expect it could finish up with upwards of $125 million for the weekend once Saturday sales data and Sunday estimates are issued early on Sunday.

Variety.com

The opening day for “New Moon” posted more than a 100% gain over the first Friday of “Twilight” which made $36 million a year ago and a three-day weekend of $69.6 million.

For a franchise that has clearly targeted females, “New Moon’s” first day is so exceptional that it’s probable that the film played beyond its core crowd to males. However, Summit plans to release the pic’s moviegoing demos, as well as international results, in its three-day estimate report tomorrow. Ever since the first installment finished its play in theaters, the production of “New Moon” has garnered non-stop headlines on glossy covers and fansites with the media savoring details on the film as well as its cast members Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner.

California Chronicles

Manager Gary Burgess said: “We had a lot of hysterical girls. It was quite manic. When we opened yesterday we still had screams.

“The only thing I could compare it to is like girls at a pop concert.”

Lorna McFadzean, general manager at the Odeon in East Kilbride, said the film’s opening days have been phenomenal: “I can’t remember seeing anything like this in my time at the cinema. It’s busier than Harry Potter and Star Wars.

“We expected our audiences to be mostly teenage girls but we have had older people, couples, groups of guys.” Tim Richards, CEO of Vue Entertainment cinemas, said the movie is massive: “These were the largest attended midnight shows we have ever done.”Independents also saw a rush. Andrew Poole, boss of The Pavilion in Galashiels in the Borders called New Moon “the most popular film we have ever had”.

It shattered opening day records in America, beating the sixth Harry Potter film and The Dark Knight.

ProNetworks.org

SATURDAY NUMBERS: Early estimates show The Twilight Saga: New Moon taking in another $43M on Saturday. Adding in Sunday projections means a $140M weekend may be taking shape.

This would translate into a 40% drop from Friday to Saturday, about the exact same percentage decrease Twilight had one year ago (down 40.8% Saturday, down 41.9% Sunday). Adding the $43M estimate to Friday’s official number of $72.7 brings the total to $115.7M. Another 40% drop going into Sunday is projected to yield in about $24M, based on advance sales, tracking polls, and other industry formulas. That would bring the weekend total to around $140M and put New Moon in third place overall for all-time opening weekends, behind The Dark Knight and Spider-Man 3 but ahead of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.

These numbers are not official and are only estimates based on early reports. However, these preliminary figures are usually fairly close to the final data.

CSMonitor

New Moon Opening Night: From Britain to China – fans are going crazy.

“New Moon” was the fastest advance-selling film of the year in Britain, exceeding the £1 million ($1.6 million) mark, according to the country’s largest cinema chain, Odeon.

In India, teenager Ritisha Mishra was so outraged at having been bypassed by the first movie that she rallied likeminded partisans online – and galvanized distributor PVR into bringing both the first and second films to the big screen over the next two weeks.

And in China, where at least one of the books in the series has perched atop the bestseller list for nearly a year, hundreds of thousands of admirers have been soaking up pirated versions of the first movie, which opens in general release only next week.

Ursula Mackenzie, CEO at Little-Brown, Twilight’s UK publishers, told the Daily Telegraph that the success of the franchise spoke to the broad appeal of Meyer’s focus: “She touches on themes – rebellion, angst, and finding your place in the world against tough odds – that resonate with girls and boys, teens and adults.”

Rea, a South African 8th-grader, says the book series is popular among teenagers because, “It has romance, it has trust and friendship, love, and hatred, it has it all.”

Dhalyn, an American 8th-grader who attends school in Johannesburg, is impatiently rereading “New Moon’s” 500-plus pages as she awaits the movie, which won’t open till Dec. 4.

She says it’s all about the storyline. “[It] has that kind of a hook to it that makes you want to read all the books,” she says. “There’s not a lot of stories about girls falling in love with a vampire.”

“I would say over 60 percent of the readers are middle school and high school girls,” says Chang Xiaowu, deputy marketing director of Jieli, the publishing house that bought the Chinese rights. “Edward [Cullen] is a vampire, he is dangerous. Girls love to fall in love with this kind of dangerous boyfriend.”

Edward’s appeal reaches beyond teenagers here, though. Many of his fans are young women in their twenties. “He is supposed to be the evil one, but actually he is a good person,” says Sun Junmei, a 26-year-old financial consultant in Beijing who downloaded audio versions of three of the books.

KansasCity.com

Robert Pattinson IS Edward Cullen (sometimes)

“Rob shifted into character and my jaw dropped open,” Meyer said in a fan forum that’s linked on her Web site.

“Suffice it to say, he really nailed it. He’s not playing a version of Edward, he’s playing Edward. There is still quite a difference between Rob’s Edward and the Edward in my head, but there are moments when they look eerily similar. I’m still not sure how he does it, but I’m glad he can. As for emotions, I think he does a great job.”

In the meantime, Meyer says she loves “New Moon,” which opened last night at midnight, and says she can’t name just one favorite part.

“I love so many things. Bella’s and Edward’s first conversation in the parking lot … the painting (of the Volturi — it comes alive!) … Jessica’s monologue … the scenes in Jacob’s garage … the first time you see the werewolves!! … Jacob in Bella’s room — thanks, Chris! (that’s Chris Weitz, the director) … the underwater moment … what you see while Thom Yorke’s amazing song is playing … everything in Italy … and I could go on. It’s all so good.

November 22, 2009 | Categories: New Moon News, The Twilight Saga: New Moon | Tags: ABC News, California Chronicle, KansasCity.com, MTV News, ProNetworks.org, The Christian Science Monitor, The LA Times, Variety | 1 Comment »