‘New Moon’ Breaks Midnight Box Office Record

Tags:

New Moon,Robert Pattinson,The Twilight Saga,Kristen Stewart,Taylor Lautner,Box Office,Twilight,Movies

enlarge

1/6

Summit Entertainment
Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner in ‘New Moon’
WireImage
Taylor Lautner, Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson arrive at the ‘New Moon’ premiere after party at the Hammer Museum on November 16, 2009 in Westwood, California
Getty Images
Nikki Reed and Kristen Stewart are all smiles at The Cinema Society and D&G screening of ‘The Twilight Saga: New Moon’ in New York City, on November 19, 2009
Getty Images
Kellan Lutz and Nikki Reed pose together as they promote ‘The Twilight Saga: New Moon’ at Toys ‘R Us in New York City, on November 19, 2009
FilmMagic
Robert Pattinson arrives at ‘The Twilight Saga: New Moon’ premiere held at the Mann Village Theatre on November 16, 2009 in Westwood, Calif.
Getty Images
Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner attend the ‘New Moon’ Regal Benefit screening at Regal Cinemas on November 17, 2009 in Knoxville, Tennessee

hottest galleries

more galleries

FIRST PUBLISHED: November 20, 2009 2:51 PM EST
LAST UPDATED: November 20, 2009 3:03 PM EST

LOS ANGELES, Calif. --

The Twi-hards turned out in record numbers early Friday morning to catch the first showings of “The Twilight Saga: New Moon,” outperforming boy wizard “Harry Potter” who previously held the title of midnight box office king.

According to box office numbers released by Summit Entertainment, “New Moon” pulled in an astounding estimated gross of $26.27 million, while playing at 3,514 theaters.

Fans showed up to theaters across the country in their best Edward, Bella and Jacob costumes. They were also not shy about screaming and hollering with giddy joy at the appearance of a shirtless Taylor Lautner and the first sight of Robert Pattinson on the big screen.

“New Moon” surpassed the previous midnight box office champ, “Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince,” by for than $4 million.

Rounding out the top five biggest midnight openers of all-time are “The Dark Knight” with $18.5 million, “Star Wars: Epsiode III – Revenge of the Sith” with $16.9 million and “Transformer: Revenge of the Fallen” with $16 million.

Keep your Access to everything in Hollywood! Breaking news and personal commentary from Billy, Tony, Shaun, Maria & all of our producers! Follow us on Facebook and Twitter now!