“Eclipse” Box Office Update from PROnetworks: “New Moon” is “Eclipse”-d

UPDATE THURSDAY, JULY 15 4:30 PM:

Theater counts have been issued for the week of Friday, July 16 – Thursday, July 22. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse drops 467 locations to a total of 4,001. The film will still have the widest release ahead of Inception with 3,792 locations. In third place is The Sorcerer’s Apprentice with 3,504 locations.

UPDATE THURSDAY, JULY 15 3:00 PM:

Box office numbers are in for Wednesday, July 14. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse took in another $3,722,137 from 4,468 locations for a per theater average of $833, representing a decrease of 17.5% from Tuesday. This gives the film a cumulative domestic total of $247,931,714 after 15 days in release. Adding in overseas returns of $219M gives Eclipse a current worldwide total of $466,931,714.

It falls to third place behind Despicable Me with $7,159,885 and new entry The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, which opened with $3,873,997. Toy Story 3 and Grownups round out the top five.

For those comparing the films in The Twilight Saga, it should be noted that Eclipse has now jumped ahead of New Moon in cumulative domestic totals over time. At this point in its release history (after 15 days) New Moon had taken in $245,049,663. Eclipse is now at $247,931,714. Both films will have hit the $250M mark on the 16th day.

Keeping track of records, the film with the least number of days to reach $200M was The Dark Knight, which hit $203,773,518 after five days. New Moon is in fourth place, having taken eight days to reach $205,788,929. Eclipse stands in tenth place, taking nine days to reach $203,662,377. This puts the film ahead of Spider-Man, which took nine days to hit $202,035,007, and Avatar, which didn’t break the $200M mark until its 10th day when it hit $212,711,184.

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 days’ 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. It would make more sense to wait another week…or a few…or a month or more…before starting to compare the two. Better yet, I think it’s wise to just see how the film does over time in its own right.


UPDATE WEDNESDAY, JULY 14:

Box office numbers are in for Tuesday, July 13. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse took in another $4,510,548 from 4,468 locations for a per theater average of $1,010, representing an increase of 4.21% from Monday. This gives the film a cumulative domestic total of $244,209,577 after 14 days in release. Adding in overseas returns of $219M gives Eclipse a current worldwide total of $463,209,577.

It stays in second place behind Despicable Me with $8,151,220 and a domestic cumulative total of $72,073,885 after 5 days in release. Toy Story 3, Grownups, and Predators round out the top five.

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