By Eric Ditzian at MTV.com: "Breaking Dawn" sold 1.3 million copies on just one memorable day. The movie adaptation of "Twilight" had a $70 million opening weekend in November. Now the juggernaut that is Stephenie Meyer's vampire romance franchise has continued its dizzying streak of commercial hits with the film selling more than 3 million DVDs on the first day of its release, according to distributor Summit Entertainment.
The hoopla began Friday night with a series of midnight events. Or rather, the craziness began hours earlier as young fans and their parents lined up at retail stores across the country to be among the first to take home a copy.
In Salt Lake City, 2,500 devotees braved lines, while 2,000 attended in Los Angeles and 700 showed up in New York. Several "Twilight" actors made appearances at the events, including Ashley Greene (Alice Cullen), Nikki Reed (Rosalie Hale), Rachelle Lefevre (Victoria) and Edi Gathegi (Laurent). Director Catherine Hardwicke held court in Dallas, even though she will not be helming the next film in the series, "New Moon." Not in attendance, however, were the film's biggest stars, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart.
The opening sales make "Twilight" one of the five best-selling DVDs of the last two years, joining blockbusters "The Dark Knight," "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" and "Transformers."
Now that Meyer's love story has conquered bookstores, box offices and living rooms, attention will only increase on the young-adult series that has already been swamped by media scrutiny, Internet gossip and a rapid fanbase with a seemingly insatiable hankering for all things "Twilight." Since 2005, the series' four books have sold 42 million copies across the globe and the "Twilight" movie has grossed more than $370 million worldwide.
"New Moon" has just begun filming in Vancouver, British Columbia, and is set for release in the fall. Last year may have been a good for Bella and Edward, but 2009 is shaping up to be even more impressive. And, of course, don't count out 2010, which will see both the DVD release of "New Moon" and the theatrical release of the third film, "Eclipse." Love them or hate them, those gothic lovers are here to stay.
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3 comments:
I was one of those in line for a midnight release party with my friends!! The "party" wasn't that great of a party (ours was at Hot Topic) but my friends and I sure had fun. We took lots of pictures and laughed and wore our twilight tshirts and talked to other fans. It was a great night. Someone asked me why don't you just order it online and my answer is, "Now where is the fun in that?"
Exactly! That's no fun, ordering online. I refuse to do that now. I almost ordered Breaking Dawn online, until I was talked into going to the stores at midnight. It was so much fun!
I'm so glad Twilight is doing so well, I just knew it would be a hit the day I started reading Twilight.
I went to a Borders party and it was sadly super lame :o( The only thing they did was a scavenger hunt and there weren't any freebies for people that showed up for the party. By the time I got to the front of the line they were all out of the exclusive edition, because they hadn't ordered enough! I ran to Hot Topic when I got out of the line and they sold me one no prob. The next day I called around St. Louis and all the Borders, but 2 had not purchased enough copies! Lol, I guess they totally underestimated the popularity.
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