E! Online: Five Things You Gotta Know About “Eclipse’s” Record-Setting Opening

Did you hear how epic the midnight box office was? Do you understand how huge the release is? Do you know how bad—or not—the reviews are?

You’re about to. Here’s what you need to know about Eclipse’s history-making debut:

$30 Freakin’ Million: That’s how much Summit is guestimating Eclipse grossed from midnight Wednesday screenings. And, frankly, the guess is that it grossed more than $30 million. From one night. From one teeny, tiny, super-charged portion of a night.

The take is easily a new midnight record, topping the “old” record of $26.3 million, which was set seven months ago by New Moon.

More than $1 million of Eclipse’s midnight take came from IMAX screenings, which is yet another record, at least as far as IMAX is concerned.

4,416: That’s how many theaters Eclipse was playing at as of midnight today. The number makes the third Twilight the widest-release ever, outgunning Iron Man 2. And the film isn’t stopping there. It may add even more screens Friday. Which may come as relief, if not justice, to some angry, blacked-out fans in Chicago.

Team Jacob Killed Team Edward: At least that’s the way it was at our midnight screening. For the record, though, the sight of Edward and Bella engaged in some PG-13 petting did elicit the single biggest group howl of the screening. But in terms of sheer number of screams? That’s where the Jacob crowd swamped the competition.

The Reviews Weren’t Half-Bad: At least not at Metacritic, where Eclipse scored the franchise’s highest-yet critical rating: 58 percent. At Rotten Tomatoes, the reviews were half-bad, meaning they were half-good, too, with the film coming in this morning at 50 percent on the Tomatometer, a substantial upgrade from New Moon’s drubbing.

The New York Times Liked It—It Really Liked It. Mostly: We know newspapers are dying and all, and critic A.O. Scott isn’t entirely convinced of Lautner’s thespian abilities, but, c’mon, the actual New York Times called Eclipse a “more robustly entertaining film than either of its predecessors.” Faint praise? Or critical praise to make Twi-hards faint?

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