Actual #s are in, Eclipse passes $606M worldwide, #8 domestic, #4 overseas

UPDATE MONDAY, JULY 26 4:00 PM:

ACTUALS ARE IN: The final domestic box office numbers for its fourth weekend show that The Twilight Saga: Eclipse finished eighth with $7,186,170 from 3,121 locations for a per theater average of $2,303. This represents a decrease of 46.5% from the previous weekend of July 16-18. The film’s domestic cumulative total is now $279,827,262 through its first 26 days of release. This is the official tally which, including the actual numbers for Friday-Sunday, has been revised slightly upward by $53,262 from the previously announced $279,674,000. It has now earned $326.4M overseas, giving Eclipse a current worldwide total of $606,227,262.

It falls from fourth to eighth place behind Inception, which drops 32% but stays on top in its second weekend with $42,725,012 at 3,792 locations for a per theater average of $11,267 and a domestic cumulative total of $142,883,424, Salt with $36,011,243 in its opening weekend at 3,612 locations, Despicable Me with $23,689,060, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice with $9,651,495, Toy Story 3 with $8,917,512, Ramona and Beezus opening with $7,810,481, and Grown Ups with $7,428,742. Rounding out the top 10 behind Eclipse are The Last Airbender with $4,217,021 and Predators with $3,120,656. Indie drama The Kids Are All Right is in 11th place, increasing a whopping 143.8% after adding 163 locations for a total of 201. It took in $2,594,758 for a per theater average of $12,909, far surpassing any other film in the top 15. It’s earned $4.9M on a budget of $4M after three weeks.

The daily breakdown, with percent change from the previous day, includes Friday’s $2,352,457 for a per theater average of $754 (+24.6%), Saturday’s $2,760,065 for a per theater average of $884 (+17.3%), and Sunday’s $2,073,648 for a per theater average of $664 (-24.9%). Overall, the 3-day weekend of July 23-25 was down 46.5% from the 3-day weekend of July 16-18.

Here is the reason why this overall number is higher than the one reported by the industry on Sunday. After the Saturday box office totals came in on Sunday morning, the studio estimated what Sunday would be and came up with a weekend projection. That is standard industry procedure. Of course, Sunday figures could only be estimated at that point. The actual numbers weren’t known until now. The figures that come in after the weekend are usually not too far off from the estimates made over the weekend. They usually adjust slightly up or down but are rarely far off. In this case, the numbers were underestimated for all three days, meaning that the percentage increases from Thursday to Friday, Friday to Saturday, and Saturday to Sunday were all greater than anticipated. Overall the effect was positive by $53,262, so the final number is revised upward.

For those comparing the films in The Twilight Saga, it should be noted that Eclipse is staying ahead of New Moon in cumulative domestic totals over time. At this point in its release history (after 26 days) New Moon had taken in $268,761,019. Eclipse is now at $279,827,262. Both films hit the $250M mark on the 16th day.

Keeping track of records, the film with the least number of days to reach $250M was The Dark Knight, which hit $261,847,503 after eight days. New Moon is in 13th place, having taken 16 days to reach $251,530,186. Eclipse lands just behind it in 14th place, taking 16 days to reach $251,371,417. This puts the film ahead of Shrek the Third, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, and Iron Man 2, which all took 17 days to hit $250M.

So far, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse has set all-time box office records for Opening Wednesdays, Single Day Wednesday Gross (non-adjusted), and Single Day Wednesday Gross (adjusted for inflation). It is in second place for Opening Day Gross, Single Day Gross, and Non-Opening Thursday Gross. Release records include Widest Releases, Widest Independent Releases, Widest Opening Independent Releases, Widest PG-13 Rated Openings, and Widest PG-13 Rated Releases.

There’s been quite a bit of discussion online regarding the film’s box office success. In particular, I wonder about the fairness of comparing the Twilight films against each other. The validity of judging Eclipse vs. New Moon is questionable given their strikingly different release schedules. As I’ve been saying since it opened, the idea was not to compete against or beat New Moon’s early numbers. That may be a goal of some people but the idea is to make money, and maybe set some records in the process.

First, there is no way that a “weekend” that begins on a Wednesday can be compared to a “normal” 3-day weekend (when New Moon opened). At that point New Moon had been in theaters 10 days while Eclipse had been out for 12 days. So any comparison between the two based on how many “weekends” it’s been out simply isn’t valid. Next, look at the time of year the two films were released. New Moon came out during the Thanksgiving-Christmas holiday season. It’s a big time of year for Hollywood but still doesn’t compare to summer, when they put out their “tentpole” films — the potential blockbusters that will keep the studios in the black for another year. The competition is much more fierce beginning Memorial Day weekend through the 4th of July. It’s simply a different marketplace.

Is Summit happy with the first few weeks’ box office returns? I don’t know but I’m fairly sure they must be. Again, the goal was not to “beat New Moon.” That may be something the press or some others will latch on to but it’s simply not a fair comparison. It was very easy to compare Twilight to New Moon since they opened at the same time one year apart. Not so much New Moon to Eclipse. I think it’s wise to just see how the film does over time in its own right.

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