"Twilight" Movie Rakes in $7 Million in Box Office Sales in First Few Hours

"Twilight" hit the box offices with a vengeance its first day out. The economy might be going to hell in a handbasket, but its nice to know that the underworld has a nice cash flow. Reuters reports that the teen vampire movie raked in over $7 million dollars at its initial midnight offering, and, according to several tracking agencies, is set on a course to threaten box office records. Movie aficionados are predicting at least a $70 million haul for the weekend. "Twilight" premiered at over 3000 theatres nationwide at midnight Thursday.

And everyone is jumping on the "Twilight" bandwagon (including this writer). Articles and blog posts are shamelessly vampire jargon heavy, leading with dreadful titles such as "Twilight Draws First Blood (Yahoo)," "Twilight: Early Box Office Is Bloody Good! (Entertainment Weekly)," and "'Twilight' a campy vampire romance with no bite (Reuters)".

The movie adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's first book in the international bestselling series had thousands and thousands of avid fans camping out overnight, standing in long lines, and purchasing tickets online as soon as they became available. Of course, with the anticipation buzz about the movie, they were talking sequel long before the movie even opened. In fact, Reuters reports that two succeeding films are already in the works. Like "Harry Potter," "Twilight" is expected to become a huge franchise. Thus far, there are four books in the series, so...

The more competitive "Twilight" fans are already predicting that "Twilight" will outperform the first "Harry Potter" installment, which grossed $317.6 million worldwide. Fandango.com reported that "Twilight" advance ticket sales placed it #3 on their all-time advanced ticket sales list, just behind "Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith" and "The Dark Knight." It surpassed all the "Harry Potter," "Pirates of the Caribbean," and "Lord of the Rings" movies.

Some even had a little fun with all the vampire craziness. Craig Ferguson, host of CBS' "Late Late Show," talked about vampires throughout his opening monologue Friday night/Saturday morning (Eastern Standard). George Hamilton was Ferguson's first guest. Hamilton, who was promoting his new autobiography, Don't Mind If I Do, starred in the 1979 comedy horror film "Love At First Bite." After a riotous back-and-forth between Ferguson and Hamilton, the show broke for commercials, and, upon resuming, had a very contrite Ferguson telling his audience that he had just had the star of one of the biggest vampire movies of all time and failed to ask him about it or "Twilight." "Which brings me to only one conclusion," he said, "I suck at this job."

"Twilight" has some heavy competition at the box office as well, which might be the only reason it wouldn't break $100 million its first weekend out (and it still might). Also debuting this weekend was Disney's "Bolt." Last week's #1 movie, the latest Bond blockbuster, "Quantum of Solace," pulled in $67 million and is expected to hold its own its second weekend in release as well. Kid-friendly "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" will also bring in a few more million, taking its 3-week total to at least $125 million (the popular sequel has grossed $116.9 million in just two weeks).

Conquering different forms of media seems to be what it's all about. Along with #1 books and an assured #1 movie, the "Twilight" Soundtrack debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart last week. Paramore's single, "Decode," the first release off the album, was the highest debut single of the week on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.

"Twilight" stars Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen and Kristen Stewart as Bella Swan, two high schoolers caught in an impossible love between the living and the undead.

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Sources:

Fandango.com

"Late Late Show," CBS Television

Yahoo.com

The-Movie-Times.com