YOU CAN'T STOP THE SPARKLE

[cleolinda]

'New Moon' Smashes 'Dark Knight's' Opening Day Record!

Which means it's already made a shade just under one hundred million ($100M), which was my original entire-weekend prediction. (ETA: Or wait, the midnight screenings are included? $72M is a bit better. Although that's still more in 24 hours than Twilight made its entire first weekend.) I'm officially revising my estimates up to $170M now. (Well, in that case, let's take it down to $140M.)

You know, I'm not surprised, exactly. It was tracking above TDK all week, and it's already the highest-grossing advance ticket seller and midnight opening. And it may be that the mainstream won't turn out the rest of the weekend. But the official @Twilight account on Twitter has been RTing messages from fans saying that, as of mid-afternoon yesterday, they had already seen the movie four and five times. Four and five times. I understand, sociologically, psychologically, emotionally, financially, why it's happening. I'm not surprised, precisely. But I'm kind of astounded.


(Zomg e-book! The Annotated Movies in Fifteen Minutes: Wizards!)

Comments

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Obviously, ten years ago, these people would be the ones who saw Titanic four or five or a dozen times within a few days.

Doomed!Romance is big money, after all. Especially when the Doom! is going to have a happyish ending.

[malsperanza.livejournal.com]

And before that, West Side Story.

Twilight is all about the addictive quality of yearning--the more you have, the bigger the gaping well of need you have to fill. It's got repeat-viewings built in.

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Don't forget the '60's version of Romeo and Juliet (which my best friend made me watch a billion times on HBO and then a billion more when it was re-released in the early 80's).

[malsperanza.livejournal.com]

Ah yes. A theme song with a movie wrapped around it. Damn good theme song, too. (Bruce Robinson has some pretty funny stories about filming R&J and having to chase Zefirelli out of his hotel room every night, barricading the doors. Kind of changes how I remember it.)

Not to mention all the readers who swooned while obsessively rereading Byron and the Brontes. IIRC Meyer claims that the Twilight books are retellings of Pride and Prejudice, R&J, and American Psycho Wuthering Heights--a truefact that is causing all of those authors rise from the dead expressly in order to kill themselves with sporks. Except Byron, who is using the opportunity to seduce a bunch of 13-year-old-girls.

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes, Byron, and you make a pretty vampire anyway...is that glitter I see in your cravat?