Weekend Estimates: Twilight Makes Huge Debut

November 23, 2008

Summit Entertainment have their first blockbuster. Vampire romance Twilight opened with an amazing $70.553 million over the weekend, according to Summit's estimate. That's the fourth best opening of 2008, and might also prove to be the fourth best opening in November, although The Incredibles will run it close. (The top three November openers are all from the Harry Potter franchise, incidentally). Perhaps the best measure of Twilight's performance, however, is that it beat last week's debut for James Bond by $3 million, and topped Madagascar's opening two weeks ago by $7 million. That's pretty remarkable.

Quantum of Solace had a decent second weekend, earning an estimated $27.4 million, and topping $100 million in nine days -- a franchise record. Madagascar 2 was weakened by the debut of Disney's Bolt and fell 55% to $16 million. Bolt itself had a reasonable start with $27 million, although that's in line with previous Disney outing Meet the Robinsons, which suggests that the Pixar magic isn't yet rubbing off on the studio's other animated releases.

- Weekend Estimates

Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Twilight, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Quantum of Solace, Bolt