New Moon Tops Box Office in First Weekend, Has Third Biggest Opening Weekend Ever

Box Office: New Moon Overshadows the Competition

November 23, 2009

New Moon madness translated to big bucks for the Twilight sequel: After it set new records for midnight ticket sales and single-day ticket sales, it was obvious it would rule the weekend box office at number one. And how: the movie pulled in $140.7 million, clocking it at the third biggest opening weekend ever, behind The Dark Knight and Spider-Man 3.

What trailed New Moon? I was pleasantly surprised to see heartwarming drama The Blind Side in second, earning a respectable $34.5 million and beating last week's box office ruler, 2012, which was No. 3 with $26.5 million. At No. 4 was animated adventure Planet 51 with $12.6 million, followed by A Christmas Carol with $12.2 million.

Photos courtesy of Summit Entertainment

9 Comments

JuicyDumplings 3 years 25 weeks

Though I have nothing against the Twilight Saga (I watched New Moon and liked it!), I'm sad it beat Harry Potter in midnight record sales. :[

ilanac13 3 years 26 weeks

i don't think that any of us are surprised by the success of new moon. i'm just sad for Sandra Bullock that her movie opened the same weekend. i'm not sure why ANY studio would do that but oh well. at least it pulled in a decent amount of money which would have been great on almost any other weekend. i still want to see blind side - maybe that 'll be a holiday weekend movie :)

bchicgrl 3 years 26 weeks

It's definitely awesome that the movie did so well (I loved it) and I'm also happy that the other movies did well too considering New Moon was the primary focus of this weekend. It just shows how many people are going to see movies every weekend when they can still pull in great numbers going against a blockbuster.

Akasha 3 years 26 weeks

I am just happy that opening weekend madness has abated and finding a parking space at my local cineplex is again possible. I was at the gym this weekend (which is the same building that houses the theater) and I was amazed that in this economy that there were kids there seeing the film for the third and fourth time. I work for a living and can't afford to go see see two or three movies in one weekend let alone see the same one three or four times. Two girls were talking in the elevator and they had gone to the midnight show, skipped school Friday to go to the afternoon show, went Sat night and were going again Sunday afternoon. That particular theater charges $14.50 for movie tickets and all that popcorn and junk food is not cheap. I must be getting old because if I spend somewhere between $60 and $80 bucks on movies it better be on Blu-Rays that I get to keep.

Akasha 3 years 26 weeks