BOX OFFICE PROPHETS: TOP 12 INDUSTRY STORIES OF 2008, #6 TWILIGHT
In the modern box office era, there are a few special landmarks that provide delimiters for the greatness of a movie’s opening weekend. $30 million is good, but $50 million is great. The real lines of demarcation, however, are the $70 million and $100 million tiers. Only 34 movies have reached the former level, while only a dozen have managed the dramatic feat of the latter.Entering 2008, this title was completely unheralded by mainstream consumers, but it somehow managed a $69.6 million debut. That slots it neatly under all of the $70+ million debuts as the 35th largest opening of all time. What type of odds would Vegas have given you for that 12 months ago at this time?
How this happened is somewhat difficult to quantify. Certainly, the success of Stephenie Meyer’s novels is the primary force.
By the time of Twilight’s release into theaters, her four novels comprised the top four sellers on Amazon. For a period of several months, she toyed with the same accomplishment on USA Today’s best sellers list. Her work was neither a flash in the pan nor over-saturated. In point of fact, the Twilight phenomenon peaked at the perfect moment.
As recently as three months prior to the release of the movie, industry expectations for Twilight placed it squarely in the range of The Covenant. Some even argued that Twilight was so close in general premise to 2007′s Blood and Chocolate, a film that made a grand total of $3.5 million, that a Covenant-sized opening should be on the high side of expectations. Part of the rationale for this was that the distributor of Twilight, Summit Entertainment, had no experience with blockbusters. Instead, the fledgling studio was considered too green to handle a mega-opening. Such concerns proved utterly baseless.
Twilight was placed in the spot previously held by Potter, one of the friendliest on the calendar.
Twilight’s first Friday (including Thursday midnight sneaks) saw box office receipts of $35,978,348, making it the 29th largest single day in history.
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Wow, I didn’t know how poorly they expected Twilight to do opening weekend. It must have shocked the crap out of them. Whatever Summit did to advertise, it worked. But having such a loyal and devoted fan base for SM’s work didn’t hurt either. What do you think of the stats in this article? Are you surprised?
