Sunday, November 23, 2008
Summit Entertainment's vampire film "Twilight" was a tweens-and-teens phenomenon during the weekend, sinking its teeth into an estimated $70.6 million in a full-blooded bow that quickly spurred plans for a sequel.
The latest James Bond entry, "Quantum of Solace," from Sony and MGM, fell 59% over its sophomore session yet still registered $27.4 million to grab second place and shape a 10-day cume of $109.5 million. But Disney's animated feature "Bolt" seemed bolted to the starting blocks by Friday's intense preoccupation with "Twilight," and the family comedy debuted with just $27 million in third place.
Spawned by a series of vampire romance novels by Stephenie Meyer, "Twilight" boasts a youthful ensemble cast topped by Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Cam Gigandet.
The film's $35 million-plus Friday gross was impressive enough to spur a press release Saturday trumpeting plans for the "Twilight" sequel "New Moon," based on the second in Meyer's series of best-sellers. "Twilight" scribe Melissa Rosenberg has already been working on scripts for potential sequels based on "Moon" and the third book in the series, "Eclipse."
Summit execs were huddling Sunday in an attempt to pin down release plans for "Moon," which may unspool by late 2009 but also could get a 2010 date.
"Everything kind of came together at the right moment," Summit distribution topper Richie Fay said of the big "Twilight" bow. "And it all started with a great piece of material that every kid in America is aware of."
The movie's recent date change also helped its opening, Fay said. Summit moved the "Twilight" opening up three weeks from a scheduled Dec. 12 debut after Warner Bros. bounced "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" from November to July.
Advance ticket sales for "Twilight" helped shape a $35 million Friday gross, with daily tallies trailing off significantly over the following two days. Summit estimates its production costs at just $37 million, so the film should quickly turn a profit for the fledgling producer/distributor and help establish its marketplace credibility.
"What this does is show we weren't stringing anybody along when we were touting 'Twilight' from the beginning of the project, because a lot of the older film buyers had been saying 'Yeah, right, a teen vampire movie,' " Fay said. "Now, we've shown that we've delivered a hit and are capable of doing it again. That's a lot."
FULL ENTRY of Carl Diorio
The latest James Bond entry, "Quantum of Solace," from Sony and MGM, fell 59% over its sophomore session yet still registered $27.4 million to grab second place and shape a 10-day cume of $109.5 million. But Disney's animated feature "Bolt" seemed bolted to the starting blocks by Friday's intense preoccupation with "Twilight," and the family comedy debuted with just $27 million in third place.
Spawned by a series of vampire romance novels by Stephenie Meyer, "Twilight" boasts a youthful ensemble cast topped by Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Cam Gigandet.
The film's $35 million-plus Friday gross was impressive enough to spur a press release Saturday trumpeting plans for the "Twilight" sequel "New Moon," based on the second in Meyer's series of best-sellers. "Twilight" scribe Melissa Rosenberg has already been working on scripts for potential sequels based on "Moon" and the third book in the series, "Eclipse."
Summit execs were huddling Sunday in an attempt to pin down release plans for "Moon," which may unspool by late 2009 but also could get a 2010 date.
"Everything kind of came together at the right moment," Summit distribution topper Richie Fay said of the big "Twilight" bow. "And it all started with a great piece of material that every kid in America is aware of."
The movie's recent date change also helped its opening, Fay said. Summit moved the "Twilight" opening up three weeks from a scheduled Dec. 12 debut after Warner Bros. bounced "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" from November to July.
Advance ticket sales for "Twilight" helped shape a $35 million Friday gross, with daily tallies trailing off significantly over the following two days. Summit estimates its production costs at just $37 million, so the film should quickly turn a profit for the fledgling producer/distributor and help establish its marketplace credibility.
"What this does is show we weren't stringing anybody along when we were touting 'Twilight' from the beginning of the project, because a lot of the older film buyers had been saying 'Yeah, right, a teen vampire movie,' " Fay said. "Now, we've shown that we've delivered a hit and are capable of doing it again. That's a lot."
FULL ENTRY of Carl Diorio
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