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The third installment of the teen vampire franchise had the most successful first six days of any film released thus far this year, boding well for the Chop Shop/Atlantic soundtrack album.

ECLIPSE ECLIPSES SEVERAL RECORDS DURING EXTENDED OPENING WEEKEND

Third Twilight Film Scores on Wednesday-Opening, First-Day and Midnight Fronts
July Fourth holiday or not, enough people opted to spend part of the extended summer holiday weekend indoors for The Twilight Saga: Eclipse to rack up $175.3 million worldwide between Wednesday and Sunday, according to Summit Entertainment. That made the third installment of the teen vampire franchise the most successful first six days of any film released thus far this year, boding well for the Chop Shop/Atlantic soundtrack album, now in its third week.

Additionally, the $68.5 million first-day box office was a record for a movie debuting on Wednesday, as was the $30 million it took in for midnight screenings.
Nonetheless, despite being the first movie in the vampire romance saga to play in the summer and on Imax screens, which carry a ticket-price surcharge, Eclipse did $3.6 million less business than its predecessor, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, during its first six days in theaters last November.

Precise comparisons are tough, since New Moon opened on a Friday, but the biggest difference between them seemed to come on Saturday, the L.A. Times noted in its Company Town coverage. That was Eclipse's fourth day in theaters, and it grossed $23.9 million, while it was the second day for New Moon, which grossed $42.3 million. Of course, a Saturday in the late fall is a natural for moviegoers, while going to the multiplex is pretty far down the list on a sunny summer Saturday. The differences between the two movies on other days were smaller, including the Sunday holiday.

On the plus side, 65% of those who went to see Eclipse were female, compared with 80% for New Moon, and 55% were over 21, compared with New Moon's 50%. That fact, and its average audience grade of A, indicates that Eclipse might not decay as rapidly as the earlier movie, for which ticket sales dropped 70% on the second weekend after getting an average audience grade of A-.

If Summit's decision to shift the opening day for the latest Twilight to the summer pays off, it will be evident in the coming days, Times reporter Ben Fritz wrote. With more kids out of school and available to go to theaters during the week, the studio is aiming for stronger weekday performances, leading to what it expects will turn out to be a higher ultimate domestic gross.

Overseas, Eclipse generated a solid $104.6 million in 42 foreign countries through Sunday, and ther film appears poised to do about as well as its predecessor, which grossed $413 million overseas, about 58% of its worldwide total.

Eclipse cost $68 million to make.

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