THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE Tops NEW MOON In Midnight Box Office Sales with $30 Million

It has begun. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse officially launched at 12:01 this morning at over 4,000 locations. All signs pointed to a giant debut and, for once, all the signs were correct. Summit Entertainment reports that the third entry in The Twilight Saga took in a record $30 million from its midnight and 3:00 am shows alone. That takes the title away from the $26.2 million that New Moon, the previous midnight record holder, posted last November. Of course, Summit nearly insured that Eclipse would break its predecessor’s record by upping the film’s theatre count – making it the widest midnight release of all time on top of the overall widest opening film to date. And this day has really just begun. With its tickets accounting for over 90% of online ticket agent’s sales and a huge number of theatres long since sold-out, Eclipse will also top New Moon’s opening day total of $72.7 million. By just how much is the question.