Twilight's going to keep a lot of people up all night.
Across the country, zaidi than 1,100 midnight Friday screenings were reported sold out. In Los Angeles, pairs of tickets were hawked for upwards of $50 on Craigslist. On Facebook, members were planning their opening-night wardrobe.
Suffice to say, Team Edward T-shirts—and the mashabiki wearing them—will be out in force.
"I think the opening siku is going to be huge," says Bruce Nash of the box-office data site, the Numbers.
But how huge? That's a trickier answer.
"There are certain sinema that are hard to gauge," says box-office analyst Paul Dergarabedian of Media kwa Numbers. "This is a weird one."
While there's no shortage of buzz about the stars, led kwa the lion-maned Robert Pattinson, and no shortage of book sales for the Stephenie Meyer series on which the film's based, there's also no box-office precedent for a gothic vampire flick aimed at teenage girls.
"We haven't seen a movie for this specific demographic ever," says Jeff Bock of the tracking firm Exhibitor Relations.
Projections, accordingly, vary. On the plus side for Summit Entertainment, the indie studio looking for its breakthrough blockbuster, they're varying on the high side. Especially for a movie made for a Hollywood-modest $37 million.
Dergarabedian thinks a $30-40 million Friday-Sunday debut is possible. Bock wouldn't be surprised kwa an opening of $30 million—or $70 million. Nash sits in the middle, calling for a $60 million-ish debut.
None of this means Bolt won't reassert the talking-dog movie's dominance, and open No. 1. None of this means Twilight will make like High School Musical 3: Senior Year, and keep filling seats after this weekend.
All this means is nobody knows anything for sure, except for maybe this: Twilight's highlight is going to come early.
Nearly 600 Friday midnight screenings were reported sold out as of Wednesday kwa the ticket service Fandango. Just under 550 were reported cleaned out as of today kwa MovieTickets.com. (Fandango and E! Online are both owned kwa Comcast.)
Overall, box-office watchers say some 2,000 opening-day screenings are already booked.
Nash isn't expecting Twilight to pull a Dark Knight, which bolted out of the gate with a record-smashing $67.2 million opening siku in July, but he's not ruling out a debut along the hemlines of Sex and the City, which opened eyes with a $26.7 million Friday in May.
"I think there's a core audience that wants to see the new movie no matter what," says Nash.
And movie reviews, which haven't been overwhelmingly kind to Twilight, won't matter, says Dergabedian.
"You tell me one teen girl who's going to care a lick about a bad review," he says.
Sneak a peek at the Twilight phenomenon in our updated gallery!
··· THEY alisema WHAT? Get today's most ametoa maoni stories now at www.eonline.comTwilight Zones Out AC/DCTwilight SequelizesTwilight mashabiki Take to the StreetsTwilight's Happy HalloweenTwilight's World Premiere Rocks Los AngelesAre wewe Ready for zaidi Twilight?
Across the country, zaidi than 1,100 midnight Friday screenings were reported sold out. In Los Angeles, pairs of tickets were hawked for upwards of $50 on Craigslist. On Facebook, members were planning their opening-night wardrobe.
Suffice to say, Team Edward T-shirts—and the mashabiki wearing them—will be out in force.
"I think the opening siku is going to be huge," says Bruce Nash of the box-office data site, the Numbers.
But how huge? That's a trickier answer.
"There are certain sinema that are hard to gauge," says box-office analyst Paul Dergarabedian of Media kwa Numbers. "This is a weird one."
While there's no shortage of buzz about the stars, led kwa the lion-maned Robert Pattinson, and no shortage of book sales for the Stephenie Meyer series on which the film's based, there's also no box-office precedent for a gothic vampire flick aimed at teenage girls.
"We haven't seen a movie for this specific demographic ever," says Jeff Bock of the tracking firm Exhibitor Relations.
Projections, accordingly, vary. On the plus side for Summit Entertainment, the indie studio looking for its breakthrough blockbuster, they're varying on the high side. Especially for a movie made for a Hollywood-modest $37 million.
Dergarabedian thinks a $30-40 million Friday-Sunday debut is possible. Bock wouldn't be surprised kwa an opening of $30 million—or $70 million. Nash sits in the middle, calling for a $60 million-ish debut.
None of this means Bolt won't reassert the talking-dog movie's dominance, and open No. 1. None of this means Twilight will make like High School Musical 3: Senior Year, and keep filling seats after this weekend.
All this means is nobody knows anything for sure, except for maybe this: Twilight's highlight is going to come early.
Nearly 600 Friday midnight screenings were reported sold out as of Wednesday kwa the ticket service Fandango. Just under 550 were reported cleaned out as of today kwa MovieTickets.com. (Fandango and E! Online are both owned kwa Comcast.)
Overall, box-office watchers say some 2,000 opening-day screenings are already booked.
Nash isn't expecting Twilight to pull a Dark Knight, which bolted out of the gate with a record-smashing $67.2 million opening siku in July, but he's not ruling out a debut along the hemlines of Sex and the City, which opened eyes with a $26.7 million Friday in May.
"I think there's a core audience that wants to see the new movie no matter what," says Nash.
And movie reviews, which haven't been overwhelmingly kind to Twilight, won't matter, says Dergabedian.
"You tell me one teen girl who's going to care a lick about a bad review," he says.
Sneak a peek at the Twilight phenomenon in our updated gallery!
··· THEY alisema WHAT? Get today's most ametoa maoni stories now at www.eonline.comTwilight Zones Out AC/DCTwilight SequelizesTwilight mashabiki Take to the StreetsTwilight's Happy HalloweenTwilight's World Premiere Rocks Los AngelesAre wewe Ready for zaidi Twilight?
