The fiercely anticipated “Twilight” sequel “New Moon” has broken box office records in its opening weekend in the US, taking in an astonishing gross of over a hundred and forty seven million dollars in to become the third best opening weekend for a movie of all time, beaten only by “The Dark Knight” and “Spider-Man 3” and knocking “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” into fourth place.
The film also secured the record for the biggest midnight opening ever, with the full Friday take of over seventy two and a half million likewise beating the previous record of just over sixty seven million set by “The Dark Knight”. “New Moon” wasn’t alone in its success, however, with a number of standout performers making the weekend likely to be the second best ever in ticket sales at the US box office, second only to the weekend “The Dark Knight” opened – and that was in the more traditionally successful summer season.
One of the other heavy hitters was “The Blind Side”, a sports drama from Warner Bros and Alcon Entertainment which delivered above expectations with a take of thirty four and a half million. The sophomore weekend for Roland Emmerich’s “2012” saw the end of the world special effects extravaganza take in a further twenty six and a half million for a total so far of just over a hundred and eight million. Fourth place at the weekend box office went to Sony’s animated feature “Planet 51” which opened to just over twelve and a half million.
