The "Twilight" franchise has come to an end ... but it will certainly not go quietly into the, er, dawn.
"Breaking Dawn - Part 2," the final installment in the astonishingly
successful fantasy series, officially opened in theaters at 10 p.m. on
Thursday night. Not surprisingly, the pre-Friday screenings set the
stage for what will no doubt be a wildly lucrative weekend for Summit
Entertainment.
[Related: See showtimes for 'Breaking Dawn - Part 2']
According to Fandango.com, "Breaking Dawn - Part 2" represented 92
percent of Thursday's ticket sales, making for thousands of sold-out
late-night screenings across the country. The fourth and final
"Twilight" movie has dominated the site since tickets first went on sale
on October 1.
According to Summit (via Deadline),
"The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2" earned $30.4 million from
10 p.m. and midnight screenings on Thursday. This figure is on par with
the midnight box office tally of this past summer's "The Dark Knight
Rises" ($30.6 million) but a far cry from that of Summer 2011's "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2" ($43.5 million).
Don't think that the vampires and werewolves still won't be giving the wizards and witches a run for their money, though.
The "Twilight" series has been a franchise to be reckoned with from
the start, proving that Stephenie Meyer's vampire romance saga had a fan
base that could rival that of "Harry Potter." According to Box Office
Mojo, the first "Twilight" (2008) took in $69.6 million its opening
weekend and went on to earn $192.8 million total.
Just one year later, "New Moon" (2009) more than doubled its
predecessor's opening weekend box office tally, raking in $142.8 million
and closing at $296.6 million. The third (and darkest) installment,
"Eclipse" (2010), is to date the series' highest grosser at $300.5
million, a total that last year's "Breaking Dawn - Part 1" fell just
short of with $281.3 million.
The weekend opening of "Breaking Dawn - Part 2" is currently
estimated at over $150 million. That figure will easily make the final
"Twilight" film a franchise-best ... and it could possibly overtake the
$169.5 million opening of "Deathly Hallows - Part 2."
[Related: Robert Pattinson confirms Team Edward vs. Team Jacob was a marketing ploy]
The "Dawn" is certainly rising overseas as well, as the film has
already brought in over $13.8 million from international markets after
opening on Wednesday in France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden
and French and Italian-speaking Switzerland, according to The Hollywood
Reporter.
Well, at least we know Bella and Edward will be able to afford a nice house somewhere ... or, like, a few dozen.
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