BREAKING NEWS! SATURDAY 8:20AM UPDATE: "The night definitely belongs to Twilight." This is what a Hollywood insider told me early this morning after NEW MOON's late Friday night numbers came in. Summit Entertainment is now saying it debuted to $72.7 million from 4,024 North American theaters. This shatters both previous All-Time Friday and Single Day records of $67 million set by 2008's The Dark Knight. So Batman was beaten by the Twilight sequel's vampires and werewolves which won't sit well with the superhero-loyal moviegoing community. But Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight Saga" novels -- New Moon is the second in the series -- are now proving as much of a phenomenon as comic books for source material at the box office. And New Moon once again has shown that when the female audience supports a film, it can absolutely dominate box office. Friday's total included New Moon's $26.27M in 12:01AM screenings from 3,514 theaters. That set a new midnight opening record, smashing The Dark Knight's $18.4M set on July 18, 2008, and Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince's $22.2M set on July 15, 2009.
My insiders are tracking New Moon for a massive $125M weekend depending on how big a drop there is between Friday's records and Saturday's results. I hear the pic logged an "A-" CinemaScore which should mitigate. But that number won't break the all-time opening weekend record set by The Dark Knight of $158.4M in 2008 or by Spider-Man 3 of $151.M in 2007 or Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest of $135.6M in 2006. But it should surpass Shrek The Third's 4th place finish of $121.6M in 2007. But all three of those movies were released in the summer, unlike New Moon which should easily score the biggest Non-Summer Friday-Saturday-Sunday (3-Day) Weekend opening ever. (Note that none of these numbers have been adjusted for inflation or higher ticket costs or theater counts.) Amazing, especially since Hollywood thought New Moon might, repeat might, do Iron Man numbers of around $100M. New Moon also smashed the $36M earned by Twilight on its first Friday exactly a year ago. (Thursday night, Summit re-issued Twilight in 2,057 theaters and took in $1.3M.) Twilight’s opening weekend total was $69.7M.
Meanwhile, Fandango tells me that New Moon was trending to sell more than 10 tickets per second on the site throughout the course of Friday. Both Fandango and MovieTickets.com said New Moon became No. 1 on their list of the Top 10 Advance Ticket Sellers of All Time (unseating the Batman, Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Lord of the Rings franchises). Although Summit switched up directors, from Catherine Hardwicke to Chris Weitz, it kept screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg and of course the principal cast: heartthrobs Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, and Kristin Stewart. And, always, the filmmakers pandered to the fans inbetween the time that Twilight left theaters and New Moon began filming. When the New Moon trailer was released online, it scored 5.8 million views in the first 24 hours, demonstrating the fans' pent-up demand. Right before the latest in the franchise was released, Summit marketed New Moon with a 15-city cast tour in shopping malls and NYC's Times Square. On Thursday and Friday, anecdotal reports were streaming in to me about gargantuan lines at United States and Canada theaters crowded with female tweens, teens, their mothers, and generally women over the age of 25. Moviegoers are also said to include boys and men, but to a much lesser extent. The Twi-Hards were playing Twilight trivia games, wearing Twilight T-shirts, reading Twilight Saga novels, and even doing homework while on line in their Team Edward or Team Jacob sweatshirts and movie costumes.
Internationally, New Moon will be in 75 territories total, rolling out from Wednesday through Sunday in 25 markets and maxing out by mid-December. This is said to be the tightest independent worldwide release ever. It's rolled out overseas to a big start, opening Wednesday in France to $4.4 million, which was nearly four times the $1.2 million earned there on the first day of Twilight.
Yes, there were other movies opening and playing in North America. According to my sources, Warner Bros' well reviewed and truly heartwarming newcomer based on a true story about rookie Baltimore Ravens player Michael Oher, The Blind Side was a huge No. 2. Based on the book by Michael Lewis, it features some of Sandra Bullock's best on-screen work. (This is her 3rd film released this year.) I hear the pic scored a rare "A+" CinemaScore. Even rival studios admitted the pic "hits that uniquely American chord." It opened to $10.9 million Friday from 3,110 dates for what could be an overperforming $32M weekend (thanks to all the New Moon frenzy at the box office). The movie sure blind-sided Hollywood which expected it to do only $20M tops!
No. 3 was holdover 2012, the mega-disaster pic from Roland Emmerich (who's a 25% gross proft particpant on the $200+M budget buster). "It actually held fine on the worst night it will face," a Sony exec told me about Friday's -65% domestic drop from a week ago for $8.1M from 3,408 plays. But it's expected to bounce back Saturday for a $30M weekend. Its new North American cume to date is $89.8 and its worldwide total is more than $313M (which does not include Friday overseas estimate). Sony believes it will come out of Week 2 with more than $400M.
Lionsgate's Oscar-touted Precious: Based On The Novel "Push" By Sapphire expanded its theater count again to 629 runs to take 4th place with a $3.5M Friday. The critical hit promoted by Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry as well as George H.W. Bush and wife Barbara is officially a box office hit as well as it racks up what may be a $12M weekend for a new $22M cume even after playing in very limited release until now.
At No. 5, Columbia/Sony's Planet 51 animated comedy limped in for just a $3.0M Friday opening from 3,035 venues. But it should have a nice Saturday kiddie matinee bounce for probably a $13M first weekend.
And, in 6th place, Disney's A Christmas Carol hangs in for its 3rd weekend with $3.5M Friday from 3,578 theaters for what should be a $14M weekend and fresh cume of $80M.
No. 7 was The Men Who Stare At Goats (entering its 3rd week) from Overture which made $860K from 2,056 dates. No. 8 was Universal's Couples Retreat (7th week) with $650K from 1,712 plays. No. 9 was The Fourth Kind (3rd week), also from Universal, with $620K from 1,648 runs. And, rounding out the Top 10, Paramount's low budget thriller Paranormal Activity (9th week) with $500K from 1,902 theaters.
I'm told that this weekend's top 6 films alone could total $225+M and add up to the 2nd biggest non-holiday weekend ever (besting 2008 Dark Knight summer weekend total of $260M), and the biggest non-summer (beating 2005 Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire's weekend total of $180M!) Wow!
FRIDAY AM UPDATE: Summit Entertainment just announced its New Moon debuted with $26.27M in 12:01AM screenings from 3,514 theaters. That sets a new midnight opening record, smashing The Dark Knight's $18.4M on July 18, 2008, and Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince's $22.2M on July 15, 2009. (Summit's re-release of Twilight Thursday night in 2,057 dates made $1.3M.)
THURSDAY PM: I've learned tonight from rival studios that Summit Entertainment's New Moon could break the all-time midnight opening record for a motion picture as it opens across North America in 3,514 theaters at 12:01 AM Friday. But can it really beat Dark Knight & Harry Potter 6?
The vampire and werewolf pic may also smash the all-time biggest single day and biggest Friday opening records, too, if it continues on a roll. The frenzy means New Moon could topple all those opening day records set by Warner Bros' The Dark Knight in 2008 & Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince this past summer. The Twilight sequel's presales already outdid the rebooted Batman sequel's, and those had been the #2 all-time box office winner. Indie studio Summit isn't reporting any midnight estimates tonight, so the majors have been trying to track the grosses with a mixture of fear and envy to see how New Moon will start its North American debut weekend.
"This pic is doing phenomenal. It's breaking records," one rival studio exec gushed to me at 5 PM PT Thursday night. "It's ahead of Dark Knight. It could break every existing record for Friday. But Saturday will be a different story." That is quite a statement.
Dark Knight scored the 2nd biggest midnight preview gross with $18.4 million in 3,040 theaters when it opened. It went on to debut $67M its first day. But then the Batman pic dropped 29% from Friday to Saturday, when it made $47.6M, and then did $43.6M Sunday, for a total $158.4M from July 18-20, 2008. Twilight, the New Moon prequel, had a big 49% drop from Friday to Saturday, and rival studios are predicting the same drop for New Moon this weekend because of its 2-quadrant appeal.
- TWI-HARDS TURN OUT: Long Lines, Huge Crowds At 'New Moon' Midnights
- 'New Moon' Opened Huge Internationally!
- 'New Moon' Opened Internationally Today
- MovieTickets & Fandango: 'New Moon' All Time No. 1
- FANS & FANGS! Hollywood Thinks 'New Moon' Can Do 'Iron Man' Numbers
- 'New Moon' 94% Of Online Ticket Sales
- FANDANGO: Twilight Sequel 'New Moon' #1 Advance Online Ticket Seller
- Twilight Saga Fans Already Lining Up For Monday's 'New Moon' Premiere
- Summit To Market 'Twilight Saga: New Moon' With 15-City Cast Tour
- Summit Buys Documentary About 'Twilight/New Moon' Town
- Twilight 'New Moon' Trailer Scores 5.8 Mil Views In 24 Hours
- 'Twilight 2': Diversity Casting Isn't Hard
- Taylor Lautner Locked In For 'New Moon'
- TOLDJA! Chris Weitz To Direct 'Twilight' Sequel; Helmer Reassures Fans
- SOURCE: 'Twilight' Sequel Offer From Summit Out To Director Chris Weitz
- Hardwicke Nixed For 'Twilight' Sequel; Summit Looks For 'New Moon' Director
- TOLDJA! Summit Announces 'Twilight' Sequel "New Moon'

UPDATE (includes Harpo letter): Both Broadcasting & Cable & Variety, followed by The New York Times and The Washington Post, and every other media outlet just came out today with news headlines reporting what I did first on November 5th: That Oprah Winfrey will end her long-running talk show in 2011. They say she'll air this on her program Friday. Here was my original scoop: 
