Image Credit: Kimberley FrenchWith $68.5 million in its coffers after a record-breaking Wednesday plus another $24 million on Thursday and an estimated $28.6 million on Friday, the third installment of the Twilight franchise, Twilight Saga: Eclipse has earned a shade over $121 million and is on its way to a $200 million six-day total. The Last Airbender, despite the incredibly dismal reviews, should have a decent number two finish for its debut weekend. The M. Night Shyamalan flick took in $16 million on Friday after pulling in $16 million on its opening day for a 5-day holiday weekend gross that could total $70 million.
Toy Story 3 will have crossed the $300 million mark at the end of this weekend, pulling in what should be an estimated $45 million from Friday thru Monday. That will put it over last summer’s $293 million grosser Up and well on its way to surpassing Pixar’s highest-grossing flick, 2003′s Finding Nemo, which topped out at $339 million.
Grown Ups pulled in another $6.9 million on Friday for a 4-day weekend that should total $27 million and a fourth place finish. And Tom Cruise’s Knight & Day should grab the fifth spot for the frame. The film’s Friday number was an estimated $3.3 million, down 47 percent from its opening Friday last weekend. The film’s 4-day number could total $14 million, which will give it a two-week gross of $49 million. Check back tomorrow for a more complete report.
First and last.
Arabang is the MacGruber of this board.
American girls are idiots.
So are their moms.
American boys are as well. Transformers? Transformers 2?
I’m not an idiot. I am most likely more learned than many of you. How do you decide after reading a few words that someone is an idiot? Seems like you are the idiot. Just saying!!!
i have to say i have seen the last two twilights and have been incredibly underwhelmed, especially with the stupidly long new moon but the new twilight actually looks good and the director is a total plus. now all they have to do is kill off bella in the first minute or so and the movie will finally be worth my money
why? are you gay?
are you gay or just a bigot? what does being gay have to do with the fact that the posters means American women are one of the driving forces behind bad movies. Their taste is killing any chance of good movies and we are getting crap designed for their taste. Just like American men used to be.
So it’s official that the WOM wasn’t good enough to save Knight And Day. Tom Cruise really needs to re-think his strategy to win over audiences again. What happened to that HARDY MEN film he was doing with Ben Stiller?
I Guess people dont care what the reviews say about “Airbender”
Or they cant read.
Or they want to see if it’s as bad as everyone says it is.
Or they’re smart enough to know that critics are often wrong.
Nah, they are smart enough to know that critics are right in this case. It’s train-wreck syndrome, they want to see the mess for themselves. It’ll sink soon as word of mouth gets around.
Well, I saw it, and in this case, the critics were pretty much right. lol The showing I went to was in 3D, and I kept wondering why 3D was necessary, because it really didn’t add anything.
or their retarded
If you’re going to go so far as to use an insulting term like ‘retarded’, at least try to be un-retarded enough to know the difference between ‘their’ and ‘they’re’…..retard.
m. night needs a co-writer to tell yes and no when he is writing and give him advice cause his movies always look really good and the trailers make u believe that this will be him gettin back on track. im planning on seeing this movie just based on the totally awesome trailer. im preying that ill like it even tho i shouldnt
people are going to see it to see if the critics and buzz is right or not. There is already a sequel underway. I saw the entire three books (the cartoon series) back in Feb of this year and was extrememly excited by the previews. In fact the previews alone draws you in. But immediately from the first scene of the movie when Katara is attempting to ‘bend’ water and she gets Sokkou wet and the intent is to make this comical or light-hearted – failed. it left me in complete utterment. But i remain open-minded. I won’t spoil it for those who have not seen it – but i read a critic review which made a lot of sense. This re-creation re-written re-worked version of Avator:The Last Airbender was done for 10 year olds and younger (btw M.Night did this movie for his younger daughter).
Its not a completely awful movie -ok im lying one recommendation if you go DONT waste your money on the 3d. There is only one movie that has given 3D ultimate quality and was worth it (James Cameron’s AVATAR). this last minute 3d switch is a marketing strat to make more money to ensure the trilogy.
My only hopes is that in Book Two (if its given birth) that the actors are all changed..(or at least took courses/classes/developmental acting…so we can see growth)
I say this because the first twilight movie was not ‘great’ the second was better and now the third i see growth and development from the characters…. (granted im totally a team jacob fan and i think bella is a bit b-t(hersome)ch.. . . .
i digress
Airbender was a huge sponsor for espn’s world cup coverage, which had awesome ratings for a good two weeks in the demographic they wanted, so I feel like it was some savvy marketing that explains this
curiosity is the culprit. i’m sure they’ll be walking out the theater hitting themselves upside the head and asking themselves, ‘why oh why didn’t i heed those bad reviews?’ that’s time and money you never get back.
LOL When we left the theater for Airbender last night, my boyfriend said, “Well, that’s two hours I’ll never get back.”
Or the people seeing it are kids who want to see it because of the popular animated television show, and who probably don’t care what other people have to say about it.
Yeah, I think it is probably that one.
Some people out there actually don’t care about what critics say and make decisions on their own without having to be TOLD what they will like and not like. It is amazing how much some of you rely on what rottentomatoes and EW and every other critic says. Imagine the movies that you have not been able to see just because critics told you not to.
I don’t “rely” on critics, but when a movie gets pretty bad reviews, it does prepare me for what I might see. Example: I saw Airbender last night, even though I’m well aware that it’s been pretty universally panned. Turns out, the critics were right, and it was pretty bad. But reviews have never stopped me from seeing a movie.
Well that’s good. I don’t think I was responding to you though. I was mainly responding to the people that are just amazed by the fact that Last Airbender is doing decent despite the bad reviews. Some people just like things that appeal to them.
Yes, but my point is, I think there are very FEW people who actually rely on critics, and who won’t see a movie just because critics didn’t like it. Most people know you have to take a critic’s review with a grain of salt, and they rely much more heavily on word-of-mouth from the average movie-goer.
As much as you loathe the idea of people making their movie making decisions based off a few reviews, it definitely helps more than you think. Sure, people may be dead set on watching some films, regardless of the ratings (e.g., every sequel to a successful blockbuster, no matter how good/bad it is), but for more obscure films with lesser recognition, it could be the deal breaker. Good reviews certainly convinced me to see The Wrestler and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, which I loved (and in the case of Diving Bell, it inspired a pretty solid episode of House).
Don’t be so narrow-minded and listen to some critics every now and then. Even if you dislike what they represent, they might lead you to cinematic gold every now and then.
I agree. Reviews do help me from time to time as well because I too would not have seen The Wrestler or even The Hurt Locker for that matter without the rave reviews. It is the staunch obsession that some have with the rottentomatoes grading that shocks me a little. Like OMG it only got 20% on the tomato meter, I am so not going to see that film. WTF. If it is a movie that interests you, then see it. Shutter Island got blasted, but I loved it. And have you read some of those critics’ reviews? Some of them are moronic.
True, there are some critics who don’t write the brightest reviews, and there are several people I intentionally ignore because they have a really bad track record, like Armond White. But for the majority of them, I listen to what they have to say with an open mind. Even if I disagree with them, if they at least have a valid reason for their opinion, I can’t argue with them. And again, sometimes they can un-earth cinematic diamonds-in-the-rough. That’s enough for me.
As for The Last Airbender, when even fans of the cartoon (some being kids younger than 10) are overall disappointed, an 8% RT rating doesn’t seem so ridiculous.
I generally care more about good reviews than bad. I have seen more than a few films that I would have otherwise skipped, but no amount of bad reviews would ever stop me from something I was super excited about.
Airbender got a C from audiences the first night. That’s pretty bad word-of-mouth. If every critic AND every friend you have tells you a movie sucks… Do you STILL go see it? Are you really that masochistic?
Audiences don’t listen to critics. They listen to the marketing departments.
At this point it’s kind of a shame audiences don’t listen to critics. Because, what happens, when you all go just to check out movies you are almost positive are bad like Airbender is that they make insane amounts of money, while much better movies that you’d probably be just as interested in are overlooked. Hence we get more crap movies made and fewer good ones. It really is sad. Most people would actually like some of the good movies out there if they would give them a chance. But they don’t.
Notice the dramatic drop in Twilight’s box office gross from Wednesday to Thursday and it’s still continuing to drop and it only came out 3 days ago. At this rate, there’s no way it will earn over 300 mil domestically.
I’m surprised The Last Airbender is earning so much considering it’s TERRIBLE reviews.
And I’m SO PROUD of Toy Story 3. It gives me hope that Americans still love good cinema and it’s not even a live action film. Go TS3!!!
But it’s the weekend now. People will be going now more than before to see it.
Yea but everyone has already seen it who wanted to.
Twilight is “still continuing to drop”? I’m pretty sure it made more money on Friday then it did on Thursday. The fact that it made back it’s budget on opening day is pretty spectacular. Has any other big summer blockbuster ever done that? It’s a huge box-office hit. If you’re going to find fault with it at least pick something that holds some water. It’ll earn over 300 million domestically.
Yea it just wont set any more records than it already did.
Ummm, Bubba, you are wrong. It will beat the opening weekend gross.
Actually Eclipse went up on Friday from Thursday. It will have a huge weekend.
So twilight won’t make $300 mllion domestically, even though it’s on pace to clear $200 million in the first weekend? Seriously?
Teenagers drive the box office and the teenaged girls will be out in droves for the remainder of the summer to see this.
We just have to come to terms with it.
Thats cause the teen girls and their moms will vote or watch anything that will get their little panties wet.
Or big panties.
Let’s face real facts..this is the most lackluster summer ever with crud being released left and right. Who cares what’s financially successful. It all pretty much sucks.
@Lanny: Umm? Toy Story 3 didn’t suck. Karate Kid wasn’t amazing, but didn’t suck. Iron Man 2 was good. Then there is ton of independent or smaller films that are awesome a la Cyrus and Solitary Man, if you think the movies in general have been bad.
Lanny’s right though. This summer we’ve had a lot of mediocre films and a couple of great ones, but compared to last summer when we had Star Trek, District 9, UP, The Hangover, Public Enemies, Ice Age 3, Harry Potter, (500) Days of Summer, Julie & Julia, Inglorious Basterds, The Hurt Locker, etc. This summer definitely sucks.
*cries*
you’re so mean!
I wish David Goyer was tapped to do the next Twilight flick and would incorporate Blade into it to do mankind a favor.
In its first three days, New Moon made $142 million, as opposed to Eclipse’s $121 million, and it didn’t clear $300 million, so it’s a safe bet that Eclipse won’t clear $300 million either.
FANBOY POSTING
Teenage girls like something bad (Twilight): it’s the end of the world.
Teenage boys like something bad (Transformers 2): they post on EW defending it to the ends of the earth and saying the critics are all idiots.
Honestly I couldn’t get on the Toy Story bandwagon same with Karate Kid…not saying its utter crap just not for me..but yeah @bubba got my point..that this summer is a bit pale and successes seem bittersweet. Maybe Inception will change the landscape.
This reminds me of just a couple days ago, when a few sourpusses scoffed at the idea that Eclipse could pull $200 mil for the Wed-Sun/Mon run.
Now this is getting ridiculous. You really need to face the facts. Just because it’s not something you’re personally fond of does NOT mean it will fail. Nicole’s been pretty much spot-on, and I don’t see why your amateur predictions, spiked with bitterness, would be more accurate than hers.
It hasn’t passed 200 yet. It probably will, but lets not get ahead of ourselves.
I’m not predicting it will “fail,” because I don’t like it. It’s clearly not failing at all. No one expected it to. It’s predecessor was earning much more a couple days after it’s release, even though it dropped as well. Judging by the previous films and the numbers now, it appears all the fans have seen it already. Saturday and Sunday they will be on round two, I don’t think it will pass 300 domestically. I could be wrong, but I don’t think it will happen. It will stop at around 298 mil.
lol, all this arguing is over a $2 million spread?!?
Don’t you have some night cheese you should be working on or cigarette butts you could be snacking on?
New Moon did not open on a Wednesday, that does make it a bit uneven when comparing.
Where is EW getting the 121 mil total from?
On Box office mojo, eclipse only has about 93 mil.
boxoffice mojo hasn’t updated with the friday numbers….it’s at 121.
I know people will hate this, but if you compare it to Half Blood Prince (which is also a fantasy film with an established fanbase, but appeals to a wider audience), it opened around the same time last summer. After 3 days, it had earned 158 mil. domestically. Eclipse has 121 and probably won’t cross 200 mil until Wed. If you think about that (and it’s limited appeal), I don’t think Eclipse will make over 300 mil either.
God, you are like an annoying little bee that won’t go away. Do you stalk Twilight threads just to state how much you despise it over and over again? It must be quite a life you have to feel so negative all the damn time.
Many people feel that Twilight is annoying little bee that won’t go away. Maybe she’s just trying to combat it in the only way she feels she can. lol In any case, lighten up. No one insulted your family. Just a movie you like.
Dude, I am having fun. You are the one getting defensive and I wasn’t even replying to you. hahahaha And I am a Twilight fan, so why wouldn’t I be here discussing what I love. It is laughable to me at how much people root for this movie to fail. You can dislike it, but to follow around all of the news on it and praise the box office results plummetting. Wow. Just wow.
Yeah, but I don’t get why you care if someone goes on a message board to talk about how much they don’t like it. lol What’s it to you what someone else decides to do with their time? In fact, some people have just as much fun trashing it as other people do praising it. So see? We’re all having fun, aren’t we? lol
LMAO … yeah I am having a blast!!! Touche. And I don’t really care that much, I just noticed that she was on here a lot. But then again what does that say about me.
Nowhere in that comment does Liz Lemon say anything about hating twilight.
Umm .. did I say that she said that?
Yea, ‘Liz Lemon’ is right. People are pointing out that it jumped from Thursday to Friday. Well that’s frankly explained by the fact that that its the difference between a Thursday and a Friday. If it didn’t jump there would be something seriously wrong. And no, its weekend will not be as huge StewyFan is thinking. The movie that holds the current record is the Dark Knight, and its Friday gross was $65 mil. Yeah that was its opening day, which is less than Eclipse, but think about it, Eclipse had a $28 mil Friday, its weekend is going to be big, but not that big.
P.S. Not surprising that EW has left out Eclipse’s other record: biggest Wednesday to Thursday drop.
you’re annoying.
Everyone keeps saying this about “dramatic drop”. There was no drop that was not expected. There was a 34% drop from Thursday to Friday which is an average and normal drop. The midnight showings are not included because they skew the statistics. Get over your anti Twilight crap
Uh….it had the largest Wed-Thurs. drop ever. 65% is pretty dramatic.
I really, really enjoyed Knight and Day. In fact, I think it was the most fun I’ve had at the movies so far this year. I hope it develops sturdy legs because audiences are giving it great scores, but more people need to take a look at it for themselves. It’s lightweight and we’ve been there and done that before, but it’s competent and very well made and Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz are truly terrific.
‘Eclipse’ will have a huge weekend and then that will be it. These movies are designed to be very front-loaded at the box office. Everybody that is dying to see it will see it immediately, some will go back a 2nd time, and then that’s it.
“Some will go back a 2nd time, and then that’s it?” Dude, there are people on this website who claim to have seen these movies 48 times in theaters (no, really). Now, I hate Twilight, and nothing would give me more pleasure than to see it tank after this weekend, but even I wouldn’t underestimate the diligence and the bank accounts of some of these crazies, especially during the summer.
Why do you keep getting so defensive? No one said it’s not going to make money. Clearly it already IS making money. But the fact is, the fans of this stuff go see the movie immediately. It does not make big money the week after it’s release. It doesn’t appeal to non-fans, so it won’t attract anyone who doesn’t already like it. Clearly, this is evident by the fact that people are choosing to see The Last Airbender, despite it’s bad reviews, instead of going to see twilight. It will not make over 20 mil next weekend and it will be an even slower decline as it finishes it’s run.
LOL What do you mean “keep” getting defensive? I’ve only posted on this article twice, and neither of my posts were written to be defensive. And I know. Fans do go see it on opening weekend, and it does experience a lot of drops. And I happen to be one of the people who chose to see Last Airbender, instead of seeing Twlight. I think it’s a little too soon for people to be predicting it’ll make 300 million. But you can’t deny that there are a lot of people who will see this thing an inordinate amount of times, which slightly offsets the non-fans who only see it once.
Fair enough. I can deal with that. It is too soon to predict. From the twilight fans that I know, they don’t seem too excited to see this one multiple times.
I resent that. I have only seen it four.
LOLOL Thank you for the laugh.
Thank you.
People need to lighten up around here. We aren’t curing cancer.
And I saw it one time JUST because I wanted to see Rob’s hair for two hours and Kristen bite her lip a couple of times.
A couple of times? What, did they put a limit on how many times within a scene she’s allowed to do that this go around?
Hey! My girl did good. She didn’t twitch or anything. Give her some credit. They all did good this time around. I think DS nipped it in the bud with them from the beginning. No wonder him and Rob don’t get along.
Well, thank God someone finally directed with an iron fist. lol
The Last Airbender is not as bad as people are making it out to be. Yes, it could have been better, but it was still a fun movie! I hope The Last Airbender does really well to warrant a sequel….just so that the mistakes made with this film can be corrected.
the last airbender TOTALLY SUCKS and IF a sequel is made, m.nitwit should NOT be the director, or the exact same mistakes will continue to be made. the idiot’s hubris is amazing considering his dismal history as a director. he needs to get over himself. there is nothing worse than a clueless egomaniac!
I doubt the mistakes will be corrected, if they keep the same director. It’s a shame, because it seemed like there was a really good story in there somewhere, and I feel like it would’ve been a lot better in someone else’s hands.
that movie was six kinds of nasty!costumes, great sets. great cinematography, horrible acting, horrible dialogue,double zero in the plot, and a voice-over droning endlessly. stinkola!
Airbender wasn’t that bad. Everybody remember that for those people who do not know about Avatar, the Director had to tell the story. So, now that we (those who have never seen the cartoon) no what the movie is about, the second movie should be way better than the first.
I thought Air Bender was FUN! Visually it was superb. I have never seen the cartoon… but the storyline is great.
IT is THAT Bad..Almost left ..only because I paid 14 I watched to the END..What a waste of my money
Just cracking up at all the haters spreading doom and gloom over Eclipse. Like others have said, whether you like it or not, Eclipse is going to be a box officer monster and nothing the haters say will change that. But go ahead and stick your head in the sand if it makes you feel better about spending time posting your bitter comments.
I keep reading about Eclipse not making the 300M mark. Wether it does or not Summit is a winner the movie only cost 65M to make that is more than you can say of all the other Summer movies they won’t make their money back.
.
Box office battles are meaningless to me.
The only true measure of movie quality is endurance.
That a movie can be enjoyed and discussed, time and again, decades later, by different audiences and generations.
Will Eclipse be fondly remembered 30 years from now??
I dunno.
….
Nope. It will only be resurrected in one of EW’s hypocritical “guilty pleasures” articles where they point and laugh at over hyped crapola.
NO. the anwser is a no. I will anticipate INCEPTION.
that’s one that will be talked about next year i et cha haha . Eclipse will ble talked about but the winner is clearly Inception this summer 
I am talking about quality.
Yes! It will be loved forever!!
Inception will be awesome in a couple of weeks, and most people will forget about Eclipse. And Inception will set the new record (for opening day)… Or at least I hope. lol
Agreed!!!
I’m so excited for Inception. I hope it makes a ton of money. I don’t think it will open Huge, but I have a feeling it could pull an Avatar and attract more attention based on word-of-mouth.
I can’t wait for Inception!
OMG, I love following box office performance and I always have my favorites that I want to see make money. BUT why do so many people want Eclipse to fail? Why does it matter to them. There were a lot of nerds who got wood just thinking about Watchmen when it came out and it didn’t do so well. And Kick Ass wasn’t as big a hit as you’d have thought it would be considering the attention it was getting. Just watch what you want. Enjoy what you want. But don’t worry about the box office unless you have a stake in the film’s success.
What if you bet your friend 50 bucks that Twilight wouldn’t go over 300 million? Am I allowed to worry about it then? lol
How is saying Eclipse won’t make over 300 mil, wanting it to fail? It clearly has already earned back it’s budget, so it won’t fail. Some people (me included) just don’t think it has the box office appeal to cross the 300 mil mark.
Eclipse will continue to do well … well past this weekend because it is actually good. I have seen it a few times now, and unlike with NM where I hated it the more I saw it, I love this one the more I see it. It is really good. I despised the first two films, save moments in them that were good, so it is FINALLY nice to have a Twilight film that I enjoy watching that is not cheesy or cringeworthy.
Why did you continue to go back and pay for a movie that increased your hatred, the more you saw it?
I have a completely superficial reason: Because I love the cast. And because I had people to go with that kept asking.
It’s kinda like getting that movie that you have been waiting for for so long and it finally comes out. You don’t realize how much it sucks until you see it a few times. Yeah, that’s what happened with me. It got worse when I got the DVD. I can’t even watch it anymore.
I just can’t really justify repeatedly giving money to a studio, if I don’t like the work they put out. Particularly if it’s something I really care about. The only thing studios understand is money. And by seeing a movie you didn’t like multiple times, you (and a lot of other people) just helped send the message that they’re doing a fantastic job, even though you say you hated it.
Trust me … I know. I had viewing guilt over it. I don’t know if you are passionate about anything, maybe HP, or LOTR, or whatever, but if you are maybe you can understand where I am coming from on this. I don’t want to give Summit any more money then I have to, but I want to see the movie. I am in constant inner turmoil.
Actually, I AM passionate about certain franchises. I actually deleted this part from my earlier post, because it was getting too long, but since you mention LOTR, here it is: “If the Lord of the Rings movies had been consistently bad, I would’ve stopped going, and if enough people did that, maybe the studio would’ve gotten the message that their target audience demanded something better.” So….yeah. lol
My love for the cast and books overrides me overstressing about a movie studio making money off of me. I am not that important. And Eclipse was actually really good, so I’m glad that I have continued to support them regardless.
I agree with you. If WB and New Line had f*cked up the Harry Potter and LOTR movies, then they wouln’t have seen a dime of my money. I can understand going to see it once, but why would you see it more than once if it’s bad? I wouldn’t keep supporting terrible films, because that just tells the studio that they don’t even have to try to make it good. They can release crap and the fans will see it anyways.
Well in the end it is all good because NM was frontloaded, so it didn’t continue to make money. All were happy in the end.
Last year, New Moon made a liitle over $140 million in 3 days, in 3 days Eclipse has barely made $121 million, what happened? Did the buzz die off?
I think it has and that’s why I think it won’t cross 300 mil. I think there’s a chance it will earn less than New Moon overall, because there doesn’t seem to be as much buzz about this one. I’m not hating (although I’m not a fan) just stating my opinion.
No. New moon opened on a Friday so its 3 day total included Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Eclipse opened on a Wednesday so its 3 day total doesn’t even count the weekend mumbers. Obviosly more people go to the movies on the weekend.
I understand that point, but if the buzz and word of the mouth was as strong as people say it is, then wouldn’t the 3 day numbers at least be steady?
That would be a valid point IF it was not summer. Twilight’s main fanbase is not in school and therefore would be able to see the movie during the week.
Most twilight fans I know have already seen it or they’re not in any hurry to see it. I think the weekend won’t add more than 40 million to it’s total.
No has not. It’s doing very well considering it opened on a Wednesday. New Moon opened on a Friday so of course it made more money in its first 3 days. Eclipse is on track to make $200 MIL in 6 days – it took New Moon 8 days to cross that mark so it’s actually doing better. Stay tuned…
I love that picture. I’m so happy Edward was pretty again for Eclipse. New Moon’s team did such a horrible job with Edward’s make up the last time.
Much better. He looked like Eddie Muenster in NM, it was terrible. He looks beautiful and other worldly in this. Much better job.