Breaking Dawn Takes in $30.3 Mil at Midnight, but Doesn't Take the Record

Breaking Dawn Takes in $30.3 Mil at Midnight, but Doesn't Take the Record

by Joal Ryan Fri., Nov. 18, 2011 10:22 AM PST

Summit Entertainment

Breaking Dawn: Part 1 grossed an estimated $30.3 million in opening night, midnight screenings, its studio has reported.

The phenomenal take is a new high for the vampire series, but lacks the shock and awe of previous openings.

And its own track record—as well as Harry Potter's—are to blame.

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In July, the eighth and final Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, blew away the midnight record previously held by Twilight's Eclipse.

While Breaking Dawn: Part 1 also beat Eclipse, it didn't get near HP8's $43.5 million, and, for the first time, the Robert Pattinson-Kristen Stewart-Taylor Lautner saga didn't grow by leaps and bounds from film to film, with Breaking Dawn: Part 1, the fourth film in the series, edging Eclipse, the third installment, by only $300,000.

By comparison, Eclipse outgrossed New Moon at midnight by $6 million, and New Moon improved on the original Twilight's night-owl take by $17 million.

"It's possible the series has hit a glass ceiling," Exhibitor Relations' Jeff Bock said this morning.

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It's also possible, Bock said, Twilight will shatter the glass ceiling as soon as next year when Breaking Dawn: Part 2, the franchise's concluding film, arrives.

Heading into the midnight shows, Exhibitor Relations and other box-office prognosticators were calling for Breaking Dawn: Part 1 to make as much as $150 million by Sunday. Bock said he stood by that high-end projection today.

Anything over $143 million will establish the Bill Condon-directed movie as the biggest-opening Twilight film, ahead of New Moon; a three-day gross of $143 million-$150 million would establish Breaking Dawn: Part 1 as Hollywood's fourth-biggest opener ever, behind only Spider-Man 3, The Dark Knight, and, wait for it, HP8.

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