Summit EntertainmentBreaking 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.
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.
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.