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Box Office: Fans Drive TWILIGHT To Box Office Victory
By
Jarrod Sarafin
November 23, 2008
Bella (Kristen Stewart) and Edward (Robert Pattinson) in Summit Entertainment's TWILIGHT(2008).
© Summit Entertainment
It seems the early polls were correct for fan anticipation playing a factor for the adaptation of Twilight, which is based on Stephenie Meyer’s popular vampire novels. When asked for “The Most Anticipated Film of the Fall” after Warner Bros. decided to move Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to next summer, the movie masses selected Twilight over the latest adventure of James Bond. We cut to the present day and the film has a strong victory to talk about in this edition of Mania’s Box Office report while Bond moves to 2nd place in only its second weekend in theaters in the U.S.
The film’s chances of winning the box office this weekend was certainly clinched when the Catherine Hardwicke-directed feature opened up in theaters Friday with a tally of $35.8 million, which is the 14th biggest opening day in history. This is the second best Friday opening of 2008 behind only The Dark Knight, which grossed $67.1 million on its debut day and rules the all-time opening day numbers.
According to estimates, Twilight would go onto gross another $21.0 million on Saturday and another $13.6 million today, which has its first weekend sitting at $70.5 million. Not bad at all for a film costing only $37 million to produce, right? Most of these highly anticipated tent poles cost between $150-200 million but with Twilight being a vampire tale first and foremost, indie distributor Summit Entertainment didn’t have to worry about too many costly special effects and big budget explosions. Obviously, this is Summit’s biggest project to date (biggest gamble as well) and it seems to have paid off very well for them.
When it comes to All-Time November Openings, Twilight is now ranked 4th place behind three previous Harry Potter installments. Goblet of Fire rules the month with a debut of $102.6 million while Sorcerer’s Stone and Chamber of Secrets follow behind with $90.2 mil and $88.3 mil, respectively.
Can Twilight continue and win through the Thanksgiving holidays here in the U.S.? Or will Australia, Transporter 3, and Four Christmases all bite into the vampire’s story?
Whatever happens, the film is still considered a success for Summit Entertainment. The distributor has already announced its intention to move forward with the franchise's second installment New Moon, which you can read about here.
It should be noted that MGM and Columbia Pictures’ Quantum of Solace is still doing respectable numbers as well thanks to their loyal fan following. The film which has already pulled in monster numbers in oversea territories opened up last weekend with $67.5 million and grabbed another $27.4 million for 2nd place in this report. After ten days of release here in domestic theaters, the latest 007 adventure has grossed $109.4 million. If you include its previous $250.1 million from foreign markets, the film has a worldwide gross of $359.6 million. This weekend’s foreign numbers are not yet in so that mark will definitely be over $400 mil by tomorrow morning. The budget is set at $200 million.
And the other new release for this weekend is Walt Disney’s Bolt, which follows in 3rd place with an estimated tally of $27.0 million on 3,651 theaters across the nation. That means the animated dog adventure featuring the voices of John Travolta and Miley Cyrus averaged a respectable $7,395 per showing for audiences in the film’s first three days. Disney hasn’t yet revealed a budget but with so much competition, Bolt and Disney executives have nothing to be sad about here.
Paramount and former distribution partner DreamWorks likewise have nothing to worry about with their animation Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa grabbing the 4th place spot for this report. After all, their sequel has been out for three weeks already and still managed to grab another $16.0 million this weekend. Not bad at all given its competition. To date, the Ben Stiller-voiced adventure has pulled in $137.4 million domestically and another $48.2 million in oversea territories. The studio has the budget listed at $150 million.
And rounding out the top 5 is the buddy comedy Role Models, which is already a success for Universal Pictures. In its third weekend at the box office, “Models” grabbed 5th place by pulling in another estimated $7.2 million in sales. The film which only cost $28 million to produce has managed to pull in $48.0 million in three weekends of theatrical release.
The bottom five of this box office report is pretty much the opposite of the top five in every way. While the above films managed at least $7 million with the top four taking double digit performances, the lower five couldn’t break the $3 mil mark.
Clint Eastwood’s Changeling grabbed 6th place by taking another $2.6 million on its 1,739 theaters across the nation. Box office wise, it’s hard to say anything positive about this one. Universal Pictures has kept the theater count low compared to all its competition but for some reason allowed the film to cost $55 million to produce. This translates to the film being out for five weeks now with its domestic gross still under that mark at $31.6 million.
On the opposite side of the coin, High School Musical 3: Senior Year could drop out of the theaters right now and Walt Disney executives should still be dancing in their offices. The film may have only managed $2.0 mil this weekend but with the musical costing only $11 mil to produce, you can wager a guess how they feel about it grossing $209.8 million worldwide. The suits should indeed be very happy.
After this weekend, another $2 million should make Zack and Miri Make a Porno the biggest grossing film for director Kevin Smith. But that’s not saying much as his top performer is Dogma, which grossed $30.6 million in 1999. Kevin’s “Porno” pulled in another $1.7 million this weekend and currently has a domestic tally of $29.3 million. If you include the $1.7 million from foreign markets, his latest comedy has $31.0 million worldwide. The budget is set at $24 mil.
Miramax enjoys a top 10 spot with their limited release of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. They increased the indie film into 368 more theaters this weekend for a grand total of 406 and still managed to rank among the heavily distributed films in this report. They pulled in $1.6 million for 9th place, which has their domestic gross at $2.6 million in three weekends of release.
And taking the final 10th place spot is Fox Searchlight’s The Secret Life of Bees. The film grabbed the last spot by managing another $1.2 million on 1,095 theaters across the nation. This has their domestic tally sitting at $35.6 million, which isn’t bad at all when you consider it cost only $11 mil to produce.
| Rank | Movie | Weekend | Theaters | Average | Total | Budget |
| 1 | Twilight | $70.5 mil | 3,419 | $20,636 | $70.5 mil | 37 |
| 2 | Quantum of Solace | $27.4 mil | 3,458 | $7,924 | $109.4 mil | 200 |
| 3 | Bolt | $27.0 mil | 3,651 | $7,395 | $27.0 mil | --- |
| 4 | Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa | $16.0 mil | 4,007 | $3,993 | $137.4 mil | 150 |
| 5 | Role Models | $7.2 mil | 2,733 | $2,645 | $48.0 mil | 28 |
| 6 | Changeling | $2.6 mil | 1,739 | $1,520 | $31.6 mil | 55 |
| 7 | High School Musical 3: Senior Year | $2.0 mil | 2,361 | $850 | $86.8 mil | 11 |
| 8 | Zack and Miri Make a Porno | $1.7 mil | 1,220 | $1,393 | $29.3 mil | 24 |
| 9 | The Boy in the Striped Pajamas | $1.6 mil | 406 | $4,121 | $2.6 mil | ---- |
| 10 | The Secret Life of Bees | $1.2 mil | 1,095 | $1,164 | $35.6 mil | 11 |
Next weekend should be interesting for the studios. With most families coming together, there’s some question as to who will come out victorious through next Sunday night. We have the western romance-centered epic Australia hitting at least 2,600 theaters for 20th Century Fox while WB plans to release their holiday-minded family comedy Four Christmases as well on 3,200+ theaters.
And of course, we have Lionsgate bringing in their latest action installment of Transporter 3 into 2,500+ theaters.
One would think Bolt and Madagascar 2 continues to bring in decent numbers for the mothers and fathers bringing in younger demographics as well.
So, where will Twilight and Quantum of Solace land next weekend? Will the vampire tale hold off the newcomers or will there be a new #1 film to talk about?
We shall see in seven days…
Wednesday November 26, 2008 Releases:
Wide
Four Christmases (3,200+ theaters)
Australia (2,600 theaters)
Transporter 3 (2,500+ theaters)
Limited
Milk
The Secrets
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I had no interest in seeing Twilight.
I thought my kids would want to see Bolt, but they never asked. So no movie for me this weekend.