The “Twilight” sequel “New Moon” entered the record books over the weekend, scoring the third-biggest opening in history. It earned an estimated $140.7 million during its first three days across the United States and Canada, smashing expectations and defying critics, who generally panned the movie.
“New Moon” revisits the forbidden romance between high school student Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) and vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). After falling in love with each other in “Twilight,” Bella and Edward break up in “New Moon.”
Bella hooks up with Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), an American Indian who is also a werewolf. Jacob protects Bella, but she still longs for the Edward. Chris Weitz directed the $50 million project.
Millions of teens, and in many cases their parents, swooned over the complex love triangle. While the film topped “Twilight’s opening, it still fell short of the all-time record of $158 million, set last year by the Batman sequel “The Dark Knight.”
The 2007 movie “Spider-Man 3″ follows with $151 million. “New Moon” replaced “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” ($136 million) at No. 3.
The vampire romance is well on its way to exceeding the $193 million North American total of its predecessor, “Twilight,” which was released a year ago.
Summit Entertainment said “New Moon” also set an opening-day record with Friday sales of $72.7 million, surpassing the $67.2 million haul of “The Dark Knight.” Record-breaking midnight sales of $26.3 million also helped. “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” held the old midnight record with a $22.2 million gross.
The closely held studio said “New Moon” also earned $118.1 million from 25 foreign markets.
Women accounted for 80 percent of the audience and half the audience was under 21. Summit said male moviegoers increased their share by a couple of percentage points, and the new film also brought in a few more older women, according to exit-polling data in North America, Reuters reports.
A third Twilight film, “Eclipse,” is due in June.
Also new at the box office was the Sandra Bullock family drama “The Blind Side” at No. 2 with $34.5 million, the best opening of her career.
Bullock plays a Tennessee housewife who transforms a homeless black teenager into a high-school football star. The cartoon “Planet 51″ opened at No. 4 with a modest $12.6 million, playing almost exclusively to parents and young children.
Last weekend’s champion, the disaster movie “2012,” fell to No. 3 with $26.5 million, taking its 10-day haul to $108.2 million.
The picture led the foreign box office for a second weekend with $100.5 million; its foreign tally soared to $341.1 million. Walt Disney Co’s stop-motion adaptation of “A Christmas Carol,” starring Jim Carrey, fell three places to No. 5 with $12.2 million in its third weekend; its tally stands at $79.8 million.
