The Numbers

The Twilight Saga: New Moon made box office history on Friday, earning more money in a single day than any other movie. Its opening day figure, including midnight screenings that earned $26.3 million, was an extraordinary $72.7 million, according to early estimates. That's $5 million more than The Dark Knight's opening day last year, and gives the movie a shot at posting the biggest weekend ever, which is a record also currently held by The Dark Knight with $158 million. That's still a tall order, since The Dark Knight benefited from a July release, but after a day like that, anything seems possible.

Normally it is very hard for a limited release to score breakout success. On a typical weekend, none of the films opening in exclusive engagements go on to a real measure of mainstream success. However, this week there are three films that could be able to do just that: Bad Lieutenant - Port of Call New Orleans, Broken Embraces, Red Cliff. It will be interesting to see which one manages to be the biggest of the three.

Everyone in the industry was expecting the opening of The Twilight Saga: New Moon to be big, but few would have predicted that it would top the performances of The Dark Knight and Harry Potter to record the biggest midnight opening in movie history. But that's exactly what it did, as it earned a massive $26.27 million in 3,514 theaters to beat the previous record of $22.2 million, held by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Next weekend is Thanksgiving weekend, which means things will be a bit of a mess. All the wide releases are opening on Wednesday, including this week's target film, Old Dogs. But for our contest we are concerned about the Friday through Sunday box office, which is important to remember. In order to win, one must simply predict the opening weekend box office of Old Dogs. Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going over, will win a copy of Bill Engvall - Aged and Confused on DVD. Meanwhile, whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going under, will win a copy of Greg Giraldo - Midlife Vices on DVD. Entries must be received by 10 a.m., Pacific Time on Friday to be eligible, so don't delay!

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This could be a surprising weekend at the box office, as the buzz for New Moon has hit new heights of insanity. There's no doubt that it will be the number one film of the weekend, and almost no doubt that it will top Twilight, which was the number one film this week last year. It appears the only real question is how many records can it break along the way.

The winners of our Portent of the Future contest were determined and they are...

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2012 crushed the competition with $166.19 million on 12,943 screens in 76 markets and $231.43 million worldwide over its debut weekend. This is the fifth best international opening of all time, and is massively better than expected. The film's biggest market was Russia where it pulled in $16.31 million on 840 screens, while it topped $10 million in Germany ($12.53 million on 756 screens) and the U.K. ($10.83 million on 480 screens). Other major markets included Spain ($8.56 million on 606 screens), South Korea ($8.26 million on 855 screens over the weekend and $10.04 million in total), Italy ($7.64 million on 532), Australia ($5.67 million on 405), Brazil ($5.29 million on 550) and Mexico ($5.03 million on 780).

There were five new releases sprinkled throughout the top 30 on this week's sales chart, mostly in the top ten. This includes a new number one best selling DVD, G.I.Joe - The Rise of Cobra, which sold 2.54 million units and accounted for $41.00 million in consumer spending at retail. This is on par with Wolverine sales late in September.

There were five new releases top reach the top 30 of the rental charts, including the top two rentals. G.I.Joe - The Rise of Cobra generated roughly 28% more rentals than The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3. This is obviously much closer than they were theatrically.

We have a new champion on the Per Theater Chart with The Fantastic Mr. Fox leading the way with an average of $66,475 in four theaters. Precious expanded into more than 100 additional theaters but still pulled in an amazing average of $33,762, which was enough for second place. La Danse climbed to $28,104, while playing again in a single theater (albeit now on two screens). The overall box office leader, 2012, opened with an average of $19,165 in just over 3,400 theaters. Uncertainty only earned mixed reviews, but it scored $13,075 in its lone theater. The End of Poverty? was richly rewarded with $12,593 in its solitary theater. Two other new releases were neck-and-neck with Four Season Lodge earning $11,667 while The Messenger managed an average of $11,131.