Summit Entertainment’s “Twilight” earned $70.6 million in its opening weekend and easily took the top spot from Sony’s “Quantum of Solace” and Disney’s new family film “Bolt.”
Variety reports the film, based on Stephenie Meyer’s bestselling novel of teenage romance with a vampire twist, gave Summit its biggest domestic opening. The studio has already announced plans to bring the Meyer’s follow-up book, “New Moon,” to the screen.
“Twilight” bounced to Summit after MTV Films and Fox Atomic decided to pass on the film. The studio then got lucky when Warner Bros. chose to bump “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” from a Nov. 21st release to July 17th, 2009.
The film cost Summit an estimated $37 million to produce – thanks to casting mostly unknown actors and keeping special effects to a minimum.
In Variety, Summit prexy of distribution Richard Fay stated: “Quite frankly, as we journeyed on this road, from the inception to Comic-Con to announcing we were moving from December, it became a perfect storm.”
He also credited the popularity of Meyer’s novels for the film’s early success. The four book franchise has sold more than 17 million copies worldwide, and created an army of loyal fans – mostly made up of teenage girls and women.
Although the majority of the film’s audience was female, Summit did attempt to market the film to teenage boys by playing up the film’s action and vampire plot.
Sony/MGM’s new James Bond film “Quantum of Solace” dropped to the No. 2 spot on the weekend box office with an estimated $27.4 million.
The film dropped 59% from its opening weekend, but has earned an estimated $109.5 million in its 10 days of release. The film has earned an estimated $418 million worldwide.
Disney’s new 3-D animated film “Bolt” had a less than stellar opening weekend – which could be blamed on mothers and daughters opting for the teenage love story of “Twilight.” The film earned an estimated $27 million and took the No. 3 spot on the weekend box office.
The studio expects “Bolt” to have a strong run during the long Thanksgiving weekend and after some of the heat on “Twilight” dies down.
“Bolt” opened on more than 900 3-D screens, and those screens did more than two times the business that conventional theaters did with the film.
Even with a shaky start, “Bolt” managed to have a stronger opening than “Meet the Robinsons” – which opened with $25.1 million, but went on to earn $97.8 million domestically.
Paramount/DreamWorks Animation’s "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" landed in the No. 4 spot with an estimated $16 million. The film dropped 54% in its third weekend, but has earned $137 million since its release.
Universal had a good weekend with the studio having films on the Nos. 5 and 6 spots thanks to the comedy “Role Models” and the Clint Eastwood drama “Changeling.”
“Changeling” dropped 38% and earned an estimated $2.6 million. The film has earned $31.6 million since its release.
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