'New Moon' Breaks Midnight Record

The Twilight Saga: New Moon shattered the midnight opening record, raking in an estimated $26.27 million at 3,514 sites showing the movie starting at 12:01 a.m. Friday.

The previous benchmark was Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which conjured $22.2 million at 3,003 sites for its midnight opening. That accounted for 38 percent of the picture's $58.2 million full opening day.

The full opening day record is held by The Dark Knight, which earned $67.2 million on its first day. Its midnight-only opening was $18.5 million at 3,040 sites.

The first Twilight drew around $7 million for its midnight opening and, by the close of its opening day, it had made $36 million on around 6,000 screens at 3,419 sites. The picture experienced a tremendous fan rush on that Friday, but Saturday and Sunday did not keep pace, leading to an opening weekend of $69.6 million.

New Moon shows on approximately 8,600 screens at 4,024 sites this weekend.

Related Stories & Charts
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