UPDATE: Final numbers released Monday put Breaking Dawn Part 2's opening weekend at $141.1 million.
_________
The Twilght's franchise's final opening weekend was not unlike its first one: massive.
Breaking Dawn Part 2 will have grossed $141.3 million since opening Thursday night, its studio estimated Sunday.
Its three-day-plus take is nearly equal to the one by Breaking Dawn Part 1, and just below that of the franchise record-holder, New Moon.
If estimates hold, the gross will be the eighth-largest opening weekend on record as stat keepers are counting the film's Thursday night-Friday a.m. business as its opening-day business (likely because those are the only numbers available). Taken 2, which also screened at 10 p.m., Thursday in advance of its midnight shows, similarly enjoyed an opening-day-enhanced bounce.
Breaking Dawn Part 2's reported opening weekend is the fourth-biggest of a hit-and-miss year that hit very big when it hit. Of 2012's mega-blockbusters, it ranks behind The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises and The Hunger Games.
Some more factoids:
- Breaking Dawn Part 2 earned the franchise's best CinemaScores, its studio said, with opening-weekend audiences grading the Bill Condon film an A. (It also got the franchise's highest critical rating at Rotten Tomatoes.)
- Internationally, the movie is off to a nearly $200 million start. Add in the domestic gross, and the film's worldwide take stands at $340.9 million.
- Take out the Thursday night-midnight screenings, and Breaking Dawn Part 2 is the first Twilight film to grow from Friday to Saturday, the studio said.
- Of the 10 biggest opening weekends of all-time, Twilight movies now own three, the most of any franchise.
- Here are all the Twilight opening weekends at a glance: New Moon, $142.8 million; Breaking Dawn Part 2, $141.3 million; Breaking Dawn Part 1, $138.1 million; Twilight, $69.6 million; Eclipse, $64.8 million—the only film in the series to open on a Wednesday, and in the summer.
Overall, it was a huge weekend for Hollywood, and not only because of Breaking Dawn Part 2.
Skyfall ($41.5 million) held up, Steven Spielberg's Lincoln ($21 million) made a bigger-than-expected wide-release debut, and Wreck-It Ralph ($18.3 million) continued to roll.
In limited release, Oscar hopefuls Silver Linings Playbook ($458,430 at 16 theaters, per Exhibitor Relations) and Anna Karenina ($315,395 also at 16 locations) got off to great starts.
All told, ticket sales were up nearly 50 percent from last weekend.
Here's a rundown of the top 10 all-time opening weekends, as compiled per BoxOfficeMojo.com numbers:
- The Avengers, $200.3 million
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, $169.2 million
- The Dark Knight Rises, $160.9 million
- The Dark Knight, $158.4 million
- The Hunger Games, $152.5 million
- Spider-Man 3, $151.1 million
- The Twilight Saga: New Moon, $142.8 million
- The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2, $141.3 million (Note: includes 10 p.m., Thursday business)
- The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1, $138.1 million
- Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, $135.6 million
(Originally published at 9:05 a.m. PT on Nov. 18, 2012.)