Recession be damned, Hollywood is on its way to what could be its merriest holiday season ever, thanks to a group of undead teenagers.
"The Twilight Saga: New Moon" posted the third-largest opening in domestic box-office history, not accounting for ticket price inflation, having sold an estimated $140.7 million worth of tickets in the U.S. and Canada from Friday through Sunday. Only Warner Bros.' "The Dark Knight" and Sony's "Spider-Man 3" had bigger openings.
Summit Entertainment's "New Moon" smashed the previous record for a movie opening outside the summer event movie season and more than doubled the launch of the first "Twilight" movie last year.
Though the audience for the new movie was slightly older and included more men than its predecessor, crowds were still overwhelmingly female. The success of the "Twilight" DVD, released in March and the No. 1 seller this year, probably helped increase interest among adults and males and persuade more young women to see the sequel on the big screen.
The good news for the vampire series wasn't bad news for everyone else.
Several other pictures, including "The Blind Side" and "Precious," had strong weekends, driving overall domestic box-office receipts to their second-highest total ever on a non-holiday weekend.
For an industry reeling from major executive shifts at three of the six major studios this year, declining DVD sales, piracy and other challenges to traditional business models, this weekend provided a sign of strength going into the holiday season, which is second only to summer as Hollywood's biggest time of the year.
Despite tectonic changes in the entertainment business, it seems, the oldest form of watching movies remains vibrant.
"It's a really good sign for the industry," said Dan Fellman, president of domestic distribution for "Blind Side" distributor Warner Bros. "It just goes to show you good movies can expand the marketplace and we still have strong potential."
For Summit, which at less than 3 years old has very few hits under its belt, "New Moon" is a massive financial success. The movie grossed an additional $118.1 million in 25 foreign countries, giving it a worldwide launch total of $258.8 million. Studios typically keep about half of their films' domestic box-office receipts and 40% from overseas.
