(Bloomberg) — “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse,” the third film in Summit Entertainment LLC’s teen-vampire series, generated record sales of more than $30 million from midnight showings in U.S. and Canadian theaters.
“Eclipse” surpassed the previous record of $26.3 million set last year by “The Twilight Saga: New Moon,” the second film in the franchise based on Stephenie Meyer’s books, the Santa Monica, California-based studio said today in an e-mail.
The first two “Twilight” films earned more than $1.1 billion in global ticket sales, according to researcher Box Office Mojo. “Eclipse” may take in as much as $175 million over the five days ending July 4, based on the estimate of Jeffrey Hartke, a Hollywood Stock Exchange analyst.
“Eclipse” is opening today in a record 4,416 theaters, besting “Iron Man 2” when it made its debut on May 7 in 4,380 theaters, according to researcher Hollywood.com Box-Office. More than 4,000 theaters offered midnight showings of “Eclipse,” Summit said.
