'New Moon'
When final figures came in Monday, it turned out the weekend was even better than expected.
Total weekend ticket sales at the domestic B.O. clocked in at $258.5 million -- within shouting distance of the all-time record $260.6 million in July 2008, which was fueled by the opening of Warner Bros.' "The Dark Knight."
And Summit Entertainment's "New Moon," debuted to $142.8 million domestically, higher than Sunday's $140.7 million estimate. (As reported Monday, the pic earned the third best opening of all time for a three-day weekend, and challenges conventional wisdom about femme-driven pics and about the factors in successful bows.)
Overseas, updated Monday numbers show "New Moon" opening to $124.1 million from 6,681 prints in 25 markets, setting numerous records. (Sunday's estimate put it at $118.1 million.) The pic scored record openings in Australia and New Zealand. In France, the pic scored $19 million in its first few days -- nearly equalling the impressive $23 million that "Twilight" earned during its entire run there.
Including early openers and previews, foreign cume is $132.1 million, for a worldwide opening of $274.9 million. The "Twilight" sequel should easily jump the $300 million mark in the next few days.
Through Sunday, domestic revs for 2009 were running 7% ahead of 2008, which was a record year. If there's a note of caution to the weekend's optimism, it's that the numbers put even more pressure on the holiday B.O. to outperform last year.
Overseas, heavy theater traffic benefited both "New Moon" and a crop of holdovers. Sony's Roland Emmerich disaster pic "2012" grossed $100.7 million in its second frame for a boffo worldwide total of $456.2 million in its first 10 days.
Robert Zemeckis' "Disney's A Christmas Carol" is proving to have legs, just as the Mouse House predicted. The pic grossed an estimated $18.5 million at the foreign B.O. in its third frame from 4,434 playdates in 41 territories, and $12.3 million domestically for a worldwide total of $139.8 million.
Most of the attention, of course, was focused on "New Moon," from the U.S. to Croatia (where the vampire romancer scored the top opening of all time) to the Philippines, and every point in between.
- The film nabbed the No. 1 opening of all time in Australia ($15 million) and New Zealand ($2.6 million).
- In France, "New Moon" debuted to $19.3 million from 755 prints via SND after unspooling on Wednesday, the ninth best weekend ever for a U.S. title. This was the No. 2 opening of the year after "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," which had the advantage of 200 more copies. For the first "Twilight," France was the top overseas territory, at $23 million. "New Moon" almost did as much just in its bow.
"New Moon" grossed $18.7 million in the U.K.
- Spanish distrib Aurum said "New Moon" pocketed a spectacular $11.5 million over the weekend. It went out on 634 playdates for a screen average of $18,450. "New Moon," which bowed on Wednesday, recorded a five-day take of $14.6 million. Pic is the fifth best opener ever.
- In Italy, the pic pulled in $14.2 million from 699 screens over its five-day opening, via Eagle Pictures. The boffo outing marked Italy's second top bow ever for a pic opening on a Wednesday after "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl."
The Italo take over the three-day weekend frame was $9.8 million for a $14,000 per screen average. "This is even beyond our -- and the exhibitors' -- high expectations," enthused Eagle's head of acquisitions Maria Grazia Vairo.
- "New Moon" grossed between $6 million and $7 million as it opened in Russia on 650 screens, according to initial figures collected by Russian Film Business Today. Gross is ahead of other recent strong first weekend openings in Russia. Last month, "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" opened with a $3.7 million gross and last year local wartime satire "Hitler Kaput" did $5.2 million over its first weekend.
- In Sweden, the film took $2.2 million from 106 screens, the biggest opening of the year, for a $20,755 average. On Friday, the Chamber Court in Stockholm, after an appeal by distrib Nordisk Film, overruled the censor´s decision to ban everyone under 15 from seeing the vampire film. The court decided that the rating was to be lowered to 11, which also means that anyone between the ages of 7 and 11 can see the film if accompanied by an adult. The previous decision to rate the film 15 caused an uproar among the many "Twilight" fans, many of whom are under that age.
- In Argentina, "New Moon" was released on 91 copies, a wide distribution compared with a 30-50 average for imported fare and hot local productions. Gross was $1.34 million for a $14,725 average.
Pic opens in Germany and Portugal on Thursday.
-- Ali Jaafar, Paul Chai, Elsa Keslassy, Nick Vivarelli, Emilio Mayorga, Ian Mundell, Nick Holdsworth, Gunnar Rehlin and Charles Newbery contributed to this report.
Contact Leo Barraclough at
leo.barraclough@variety.com