Breaking Dawn Is the Biggest (Just Not, You Know, the Biggest)

New Twilight film grosses whopping $139.5 mil at weekend box office, per estimates, and beats just about everything—except its own history

By Joal Ryan Nov 20, 2011 5:37 PMTags
ROBERT PATTINSON, KRISTEN STEWART, THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN Summit Entertainment

Breaking Dawn: Part 1 owned the penguins, the Immortals and the weekend. 

It just didn't own its own record book. 

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The new Twilight movie grossed $139.5 million, per Sunday estimates, the fifth-biggest, opening-weekend debut in Hollywood history.

In fourth place on the all-time list—still: New Moon, which made off with nearly $143 million in 2009.

If Breaking Dawn: Part 1 fell shy of setting a franchise record that most box-office handicappers thought it would have, then it didn't fall short elsewhere.

In the box-office race, domestic division, it lorded over a weak CGI sequel, Happy Feet Two, and a one-and-done box-office champ, Immortals. Overseas, it was a bigger force than any previous Twilight film, grossing $144 million.

Overall, the $110 million movie is already projected to have grossed $283.5 million worldwide.

And that, judging by Box Office Mojo stats, actually is a Twilight record.

Elsewhere, George Clooney's Oscar-buzz comedy-drama, The Descendants, looked like a winner, cracking the Top 10 and the $1million mark despite playing at fewer than 30 theaters. (Breaking Dawn played at more than 4,000.)

In its second weekend, Adam Sandler's infamous Jack and Jill didn't drop like a stone, but didn't look like it was going to top $100 million domestically, either. Right now, it's at about $41 million, or about $20 million behind the pace of Just Go With It, which itself just barely kept Sandler's streak of nine-figure-grossing comedies alive.

Footloose and Paranormal Activity 3 both dropped out of the Top 10. The remake goes out with more $50 million in the domestic bank; the sequel, with $100 million-plus.

Here's a complete look at the weekend's top movies, as compiled from the studios' domestic estimates and other sources:

  1. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn: Part 1, $139.5 million
  2. Happy Feet Two, $22 million
  3. Immortals, $12.3 million
  4. Jack and Jill, $12 million
  5. Puss in Boots, $10.7 million
  6. Tower Heist, $7 million
  7. J. Edgar, $5.9 million
  8. A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, $2.9 million
  9. In Time, $1.7 million
  10. The Descendants, $1.2 million