Let the record breaking begin. The second film in the TWILIGHT franchise, NEW MOON, opened with $26.7 million in revenues from special midnight (well, 12:01AM) screenings at 3,514 theaters. The previous record for midnight openings belonged to this summer’s HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE (with $22.2 million), which had usurped the previous record-holder, THE DARK KNIGHT ($18.4 million).

Of course, the question now is, can Chris Weitz’s entry into the TWILIGHT pantheon break the rest of the opening weekend records, like the all-time opening weekend (domestically, THE DARK KNIGHT holds the title with $158.4 million, and HALF BLOOD PRINCE owns the worldwide record with $394 million) or opening days (THE DARK KNIGHT with $67.1 million)?

Fandango is already reporting that NEW MOON tickets are selling at a rate of more than 10 per second today. That, of course, doesn’t even bring into account those fans that already had their tickets in-hand (some of them, for months). A film like NEW MOON will most likely benefit from fans taking in multiple viewings, especially in this first weekend. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that many of the fans who showed up for a midnight show will also make time during the rest of the weekend to see it at least one more time. TWILIGHT fans have proven themselves a devoted bunch (to put it mildly), so I am more interested in seeing numbers for Saturday and Sunday showings, not just midnight records and the traditional opening Friday night numbers.

TWILIGHT fans, have you already seen NEW MOON? Do you plan on seeing it multiple times?

Source Deadline Hollywood, Box Office Mojo

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