Wait, Did Twilight Fans Make Lincoln a Hit?

One thing's for sure, both Robert Pattinson's undead Edward Cullen and Daniel Day-Lewis' gaunt Honest Abe scored with older women at the Breaking Dawn-led weekend box office

By Joal Ryan Nov 19, 2012 3:30 PMTags
Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln, Robert Pattinson, Breaking Dawn Part 2DreamWorks; Summit

Meet Edward Cullen and Abraham Lincoln. You know, the chick magnets.

Moviegoers who got Breaking Dawn Part 2 off to one of the all-time biggest starts at the weekend box office, also helped Lincoln to a surprisingly big wide-release launch.

And, by moviegoers, of course, we mean women.

To the surprise of no one, women comprised 79 percent of the final Twilight's opening-weekend audience. (At 21 percent, it should be noted, men made their biggest franchise showing yet.)

Of Breaking Dawn Part 2's female audience, half were age 25 or older.

And maybe, just maybe two-timing with Lincoln.

See, the Steven Spielberg Oscar vehicle starring Daniel Day-Lewis likewise owed a good chunk (47 percent) of its $21 million Friday-Sunday haul to women, and especially to (how should we say?) more-seasoned women, with the movie generating two-thirds of its business from male and female ticket-buyers age 35 or older.

So, in a nutshell, Breaking Dawn Part 2 and Lincoln had way more in common than, well, nothing.    

"There's a strong possibility that [women are] getting out to see both," said Richie Fay, domestic distribution president for Summit Entertainment, which released the Twilight movies.

At the same time, it's possible that it was a very big weekend for Hollywood, which it was, and loads of people went to the movies, which they did, and, unlike the goings-on at the Pentagon, Breaking Dawn's women and Lincoln's women never crossed paths. 

But it's more tempting to think that when you can't slay 'em at the box office, you join 'em.

And, yes, that was an Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter joke, for which we apologize.

Take that, Spielberg: The best Twilight scenes ever!