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According to ERC, ***The Twilight Saga: New Moon ***sold roughly $71 million worth of tickets on its opening day – a number that, if correct, far surpasses the current opening day box office record of $67 million set by The Dark Knight](http://www.moviefone.com/movie/the-dark-knight/27016/main) back in 2008. With its $26 million take in midnight showings, that gives the second installment in the *Twilight *franchise two pretty giant records: Best Midnight Opening and Best Single Day Opening. Next up for the franchise is the three-day opening weekend record, also held by The Dark Knight with $158 million.
So what does this say about us? Well, while it’s not as critically acclaimed as, say, *Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince *(previous midnight opening record holder) or The Dark Knight, these numbers do show just how much of an impact the female audience can have on a box office take. Sure, when *The Dark Knight *broke records everyone wanted to single out the teenage male audience as having won that film its titles, but polls showed females were responsible for upwards of 50% of that film’s opening box office too. And now, with New Moon breaking records attracting a younger female audience, here’s hoping studios wake up and realize that, yeah, the female audience is a damn powerful force.
So kudos to all you Twi-hards for showing up to support the property you love. Is the film truly worthy of its new records? Probably not. Will another film break those records within the next year? Yeah, most likely. But dammit if the folks at Summit Entertainment aren’t partying their asses off this weekend. They just won the World Series at the box office. Congrats!