“The Twilight Saga: Eclipse”: will vampires and werewolves defeat Batman and Joker?

I’m pretty sure we all know that “Eclipse” will be #1 in the weekend box office, and will put up some huge numbers. But will it put up bigger numbers than “New Moon”?

No one was expecting “New Moon” to give “The Dark Knight” and “Spiderman 3″ a run for their money as the biggest opening weekend of all time, which “The Dark Knight” still holds at $158.4 million. However, it did shatter the midnight showing and opening day box office records held by “The Dark Knight” and “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”.

I don’t think it’s ridiculous to think that “Eclipse” will shatter the records held by its predecessor. But will it touch, or even break the seemingly untouchable number put up by “The Dark Knight” and break the weekend box office record? I think the numbers will be closer than people think. The promotion for “Eclipse” has been huge, and it is getting more great reviews from top rated critics than bad ones. This franchise gets bigger every year, and I think it may just do the impossible. These are my predictions:

Midnight Showing sales:

New Moon: $26.3 million
Harry Potter 6: $22.2 million
The Dark Knight: $18.4 million
Eclipse prediction: $30 million (yup, I said it. $30 mil.)

Opening Day sales:

New Moon: $72.7 million
The Dark Knight: $67.2 million
Eclipse prediction: $78 million (however, I really want to say $80 mil)

Opening Weekend sales:

New Moon: $142.8 million
The Dark Knight: $158.4 million
Spiderman 3: $151.4 million
Eclipse prediction: $155 million

Now, I would really like to say “Eclipse” will break the opening weekend box office record, but the numbers put up by “The Dark Knight” seem just a little too out of reach. However, I have no problem thinking it will pass “Spiderman 3″. The reason I think it will however, give “The Dark Knight” a run for its money is because the only other movie opening this weekend is “The Last Airbender”, which isn’t nearly as anticipated as “Eclipse”, and isn’t opening until Thursday. Plus, “Toy Story 3″ is still making a good portion of money.

Here’s the way I see it. Obviously there are people out there not interested in “Eclipse”. But there is nothing else that opens this weekend for an audience that is not interested in fantasy. So people will either be seeing “Eclipse”, “The Last Airbender” or “Toy Story 3″. The female audience, will be seeing “Eclipse”, which leaves the males to see the other two. However, with the amount of fangirl power that Twi-hards have, you can expect the female audience to go back and see “Eclipse” at least 3 times in the first couple days. I saw “New Moon” twice in the first 24 hours of its release, and that doesn’t even come close to true fangirl power.

Anyway, I was just wondering about it today, and figured I would write up a blog of my thoughts. So there it is. One thing we do know for sure, “Eclipse” will have a huge opening, that we can count on.

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