Box: RIP Twilight

1. Breaking Dawn Part 2 - $140m / $140m / $300m
2. Skyfall - $37m / $157m / $250m
3. Wreck-It Ralph - $20m / $123m / $180m
4. Lincoln - $17m / $18.5m / $100m
5. Flight - $8m / $60.5m / $86m
6. Argo - $4m / $91.5m / $105m
7. Taken 2 - $2m / $134.5m / $140m
8. Cloud Atlas - $1.3m / $25m / $28m
Here Comes the Boom - $1.3m / $41m / $44m
Hotel Transylvania - $1.3m / $143m / $146m
Pitch Perfect - $1.3m / $61m / $64m

Anna Karenina and Silver Linings Playbook each open in about 15 theatres.  I doubt either will top $50k per theater average, but they might be close.  Silver Linings is no longer going wide on Wednesday, rather a moderate couple hundred theatres to help build word of mouth.  Probably for the best as the film will get lost in the very busy shuffle currently happening.  Skyfall opened to a larger than expected $88m last weekend, and has seemingly hogged the movie media coverage.  Theaters are going to be packed over the next two weeks, and the openers are going to to kill off the films that have been out for a few weeks.  Lincoln scored a massive $85k+ theater average last weekend, but like Flight two weeks ago, it is only opening in around 1500 theaters.  That'll be enough to get it to the high teens, but any higher looks out of reach.  It'll hang on strong over the next four weeks.  That brings up something important to keep in mind, only two movies open November 30 and only one movie opens December 7.  None of those will do any business, so the non-Twilight and non-Bond movies should hold on well.  Wreck-It Ralph will see the smallest drop in the top 10 this weekend.  3 movies go wide Wednesday, and the market is already overly crowded.  Could be two record breaking weekends ahead.

As for Breaking Part: Part 2, I know I'm not the only one who has noticed this but it feels like there's an odd lack of buzz for the film.  The other films in the franchise felt much bigger, and it might just be Bond has absorbed all the movie media coverage.  Perhaps the media has already moved on.  I doubt this will affect its opening at all, as it could easily be a record breaking opening.  Followed by a swift freefall that has plagued the series since the beginning. 

As for the series itself, there's no real comparison for it.  I can't think of another franchise that was this poorly reviewed, and its funny to think how so many people commented on just how awful the actual films were yet still lined up to see it.  I have no idea what the careers ahead will be for the three young stars, but I'd wager Stewart probably fares the best.  Lautner has been in, like, 2 other movies and the one that relied on him as the star failed.  Pattinson, similarly, hasn't had any outside success.  It does seem like Stewart has the best eye for scripts, and her work in Adventureland and The Runaways is very good.  I know I've given her tons of shit for just how awful she was in Twilight, but I get the feeling that she really never wanted to be part of the franchise.  Look at how Jennifer Lawrence commented on her hesitation to be part of The Hunger Games franchise, and I bet a large part of that is because of what happened to Stewart.  No one did these movies because they really wanted to, it just would be a good paycheck.  Probably a smart career move too, as has been pointed out the smaller actors will be doing conventions for the rest of their lives. 

If you think I'm being nasty, this is the actually the nice version of what I wanted to say.