$30 Millon Made At MIDNIGHT Premiere Of "BREAKING DAWN"

Box-office analysts predicted that the returns for "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1" were going to be big, but now we're finally getting an idea of just how big.


The totals from Thursday's midnight showings are in, and "Breaking Dawn - Part 1" just barely broke the series record by earning $30.25 million; "Eclipse" held the previous best for the series with $30.1 million. That works out to be almost $8,600 per location just from the midnight showings.
While impressive, the midnight totals for "Breaking Dawn - Part 1" were still a far cry from the record set by "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2," which earned $43.5.
Ray Subers from Box Office Mojo expects "Breaking Dawn - Part 1" to follow the pattern set by "New Moon" in 2009 for its Friday total, which was $83 million, and then go on to earn $160 million for its total opening weekend, which would make it the second-best opening of the year and all-time, again behind "Deathly Hallows, Part 2."
Summit had originally predicted that the penultimate entry in the series could earn anywhere from $110 million to $125 million in its opening weekend. Rival studios claimed this number was purposely lower than actual expectations, which they put at more than the "New Moon" $142 million total.
To put the midnight total into perspective, Taylor Lautner's last film, "Abduction," has earned only $27.5 million in the two months since its release.

mtv.com