By Ryan Parsons | Image property of Summit Entertainment, Variety
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
Summit found themselves in a fortunate position this holiday weekend. Though The Twilight Saga: Eclipse was up against The Last Airbender for the popular frame, early negative reviews/buzz for Airbender -- the film supposedly blows balls -- helped give those on the fence about which film to see a little push in Summit's direction. Reviews that claimed Eclipse to be the franchise's best also helped.
Box Office Winner: The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
Eclipse took in a whopping $82.5 million over the domestic four-day weekend. The film also did exceptionally well overseas, making another $104.6 million during the non-holiday weekend everywhere else.
Though the Fourth of July can result in a slowdown at the box office, Paramount and Summit were sure to release their films earlier on in the week to counteract the holiday. "Historically, those early screenings do have an impact on the coming weekend, and with this film we saw it coming," said Summit's prexy of domestic distribution Richie Fay. "When you have a franchise title like this, you have a very impulsive audience that tends to first see the film either on midnight or opening day."
Though The Last Airbender could not find any love from the critics or adult moviegoers, the film still did just fine with $53.2 million. Thanks to Airbender and Eclipse, the box office was up 18% over the same holiday frame last year.
Add to Heffee!
