Weekend Estimates: New Moon Has Third Biggest Weekend Ever

November 22, 2009

After enjoying impressive box office and home market sales over the last year for Twilight, the industry knew that Summit had a potential blockbuster franchise on its hands. This weekend has proved that they have a franchise as big as anything else in the industry. The Twilight Saga: New Moon opened on Friday with an extraordinary estimated $72.7 million, the biggest single day in box office history (see list). And, while it couldn't quite maintain that pace through the entire weekend, the studio reported a final weekend estimate of $140.7 million this morning, the third-biggest weekend of all time (see list).

Two other records are worth noting. This is the biggest ever weekend in November, beating Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire's debut in 2005 (see list of biggest November weekends. It's also the biggest weekend of 2009, easily beating Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen's $109 million Friday-Sunday performance.

New Moon wasn't the only good piece of news for the industry over the weekend. Warner Bros.' The Blind Side was also fast out the gate with an estimated $34.51 million, again well ahead of expectations. With generally good reviews, and a tremendous response from audiences, Blind Side is well set for an excellent Thanksgiving weekend and caps a fantastic year for star Sandra Bullock.

With 2012 doing reasonably well on its second weekend, down 59% to $26.5 million, the market as a whole looked very robust this weekend. Early estimates have it up 58% from the same weekend last year.

In fourth place, Planet 51 enjoyed an OK $12.6 million opening. While the movie will be over-shadowed by other family movies over the holidays, its opening was better than many feared.

Precious expanded to 629 theaters and continued its fantastic run with $11 million, for a total of $21.4 million so far. The Fantastic Mr. Fox recorded another good weekend in exclusive engagements, picking up $199,000 in four theaters. Broken Embraces, however, one the weekend on the Per Theater Chart, with a massive $107,597 in two theaters for an average of $53,799.

- Weekend Estimates
- Biggest Single Days at the Box Office
- Biggest Weekends at the Box Office

Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Los abrazos rotos, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, The Blind Side, Precious (Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire), Fantastic Mr. Fox, Planet 51, 2012