“Eclipse” Estimated to Make $150 Million In Its First 6 Days

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With the ink still damp on $709.7 million of worldwide box-office gross from “Twilight Saga: New Moon,” Summit Entertainment well debut part-three franchise “Twilight” installment “Eclipse” into 4,408 engagements Wednesday, many of them offering midnight engagements.

With that theater count including 193 IMAX locations, Summit Entertainment officials are moving “Twilight” out of November for the first time, giving the film access to its young-female core demographic at a time when its constituents are out of school.

Conservative forecasts predict the PG-13-rated film will gross $150 million domestically in its first six days of release, spanning through the holiday weekend. That would usurp the $142.8 million three-day opening for “New Moon” last November.

“Eclipse,” which returns the core cast of Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner, will also debut in 41 foreign territories this weekend.

“We hope our opening day will be bigger on opening day because our audience isn’t getting up for school,” noted Summit distribution chief Richie Fay.

With tracking surveys revealing the “definite interests” of young female demographics to be in the almost unheard of 40-percent-and-above range, “Eclipse” will try to improve on a male-demo turnout that tallied less than 20 percent of the total audience for “New Moon.”

“We think being in IMAX this time around will help with that,” Fay added. “IMAX has the tendency to broaden the audience.”

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