Estimated $140.7 Million Weekend for New Moon

The "Twilight" sequel scored the third-biggest opening weekend of all time at the North American box office on Sunday, as millions of young women swooned over the complex love triangle involving a high school girl, a vampire and a werewolf.

"The Twilight Saga: New Moon" earned an estimated $140.7 million during its first three days of release across the United States and Canada, closely held distributor Summit Entertainment said, crushing industry expectations.

The record for an opening is $158 million, set last year by the Batman sequel "The Dark Knight." The 2007 movie "Spider-Man 3" follows with $151 million. "New Moon" replaced "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" ($136 million) at No. 3.

The vampire romance is well on its way to exceeding the $193 million total of its predecessor, "Twilight," which was released exactly a year ago.

Summit Entertainment said "New Moon" also set an opening-day record with Friday sales of $72.7 million, surpassing the $67.2 million haul of "The Dark Knight."

That tally was bolstered by record-breaking midnight sales of $26.3 million. The old mark was set earlier this year by "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" with $22.2 million.

A FEW MORE MEN

The closely held studio said "New Moon" also earned $118.1 million from 25 foreign markets. Data from individual countries were not immediately available.

Exit-polling data in North America indicated that women accounted for 80 percent of the audience and half the audience was under 21. Summit said male moviegoers increased their share by a couple of percentage points, and the new film also brought in a few more older women.

"New Moon" revisits the dangerous romance between high school student Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) and vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson).

After falling in love with each other in "Twilight," Bella and Edward break up in "New Moon." Bella hooks up with Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), an American Indian who is also a werewolf. Jacob protects Bella, but she still longs for the gentle blood-sucker Edward. Chris Weitz directed the $50 million project.

[abc news]