We all know ‘The Twilight Saga: Eclipse’ is going to be big as far as box office numbers are concerned. Currently, the movie is generating 82% of the daily sales on Fandango.com and is to date the highest advance ticket seller the site has had all year.
But, what kind of records/previous box office numbers will Eclipse have to beat out?
We already know ‘The Twilight Saga: New Moon’ was one of 2009’s top earners with a box office total of $296.6 million, however its opening day total was record breaking, the film brought in $72.7 million on its opening day, $27 million of that was just from midnight showing. ‘New Moon’s opening weekend was also massive with $142.8 for all 3 days. ‘Eclipse’ has a slight advantage with that its opening on 1) a Wednesday 2) a holiday weekend (4th of July), the film also doesn’t have much in the way of competition, the only other film opening this weekend is ‘The Last Airbender’.
There are other records to break, Last summer ‘Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen’ nabbed the top spot for an Opening Day – Wednesday with $62 million. Back in 2008 ‘The Dark Knight’ grossed $203.7 million during its 5 day opening and so far no one has topped that. The highest ‘4th of July’ weekend gross goes to ‘Spider Man 2’ with $88.1 million.
What does all this mean for ‘Eclipse’ in order to beat all those records listed above, ‘Eclipse’ will need to generate at least $203.8 million this weekend. Now, the chances are slightly greater due to the film having a limited release in IMAX, which does have its higher ticket prices.
Twilight Fans are known to see the movie during repeat viewings over opening weekend, so hopefully with the holiday weekend, IMAX viewings, and the multiple viewing I know Twilight fans are sure to do, there is a good chance ‘Eclipse’ could be the biggest earner during this rather bleak “Blockbuster” summer.
