TWILIGHT sucks $70.5 million from the U.S., sequel greenlit

By Matt Holmes / June 25, 2011

The critic proof TWILIGHT made $70.5 million over it's debut weekend, substantially more than enough for Summit Entertainment to quickly send out a press release the next day saying a sequel had been greenlit, based on Stephenie Meyer's second book in the series NEW MOON. The $70.5 million makes TWILIGHT the fourth biggest November release of all time, beating out QUANTUM OF SOLACE by $3 million. Coming Soon say audience research figures show that 55% of the viewers were under the age of 25 and women accounted for 2/3rd's of the audience. I also wonder how many of the fangirls saw this movie twice. Box Office Mojo report that for the first time since Eminem's 8 MILE in 2002, the soundtrack for a No. 1 film also debuted at the top of the music charts, these fans are as rabid as any comic book geek.

1 Twilight (2008/I) $70.6M $70.6M 2 Quantum of Solace (2008) $27.4M $109M 3 Bolt (2008) $27M $27M 4 Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008) $16M $137M 5 Role Models (2008) $7.23M $48M 6 Changeling (2008) $2.64M $31.6M 7 High School Musical 3: Senior Year (2008) $2.01M $86.8M 8 Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008) $1.7M $29.4M 9 The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008) $1.67M $2.65M 10 The Secret Life of Bees (2008) $1.27M $35.6 QUANTUM OF SOLACE dropped a healthy 59.4% from it's first week, making another $27.4 million and no doubt won the male vote over the weekend. The movie has already crossed the $100 million mark domestically and now $418.5 million worldwide from a budget of $200 million.