Box Office: 'New Moon' rises with a record setting $72.7 million Friday

The movie industry may be close to panic because of the case of the incredibly collapsing DVD market, but this weekend "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" and "The Blind Side" are proving the theatrical market is still a record-setting powerhouse.

Coming off a historic midnight opening, "New Moon" grossed an astonishing $72.7 million on Friday alone.  That breaks "The Dark Knight's" single day record of  $67.2 million in the summer of 2008.  Only a year ago, "Twilight" debuted with $69 million for the entire weekend.  Distributors expect a drop from Friday to Saturday, but it's clear the franchise's highly anticipated second installment will clear the $100 million mark by Sunday.  Where the Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner and Kristen Stewart flick ends up is still anyone's guess at this point, but Summit Entertainment are no doubt salivating at a sequel that will blow by its predecessor's $192.7 million cume.

Also opening this weekend was the Sandra Bullock crowd pleasing drama "The Blind Side."  There was initially concern the female demo of "New Moon" would hurt the football drama's numbers, but it appears both films have found an audience.  "Blind Side" punted for $10.9 million on Friday for what should be an impressive $28-30 million weekend.  Pretty remarkable considering the competition.
 

The animated "Planet 51" debuted looking to find a family audience, but the Dwayne Johnson - voiced tale found only a paltry $3 million instead.  Unable to take a bite out of "A Christmas Carol's" audience, the Sony Pictures release should do between $8-10 million for the 3-day.

Luckily, Sony has the blockbuster "2012" on its hands or are they?  Heading into its second weekend, the Roland Emmerich flick was down a jaw-dropping 88% for only an $8.1 million Friday and what should be a $20-22 million weekend.  After eight days, "2012" has already made a strong$89.8 stateside.  However, with that drop $200 million domestic definitely seems out of reach.

Lionsgate expanded the limited release wonder "Precious: Based on Push a Novel by Sapphire" to 600 theaters and was rewarded with another $3.5 million.  The Lee Daniels Oscar contender now has a new cume of $13.8 million and should perform strongly throughout next week's Thanksgiving holiday.

Look for final weekend estimates tomorrow on HitFix.
 

Gregory Ellwood
Editor-in-Chief, Co-Founder

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With over a decade of experience in the movie industry, Ellwood survived working for two major studios and has written for Variety, MSN and the LA Times. A co-founder of HitFix, Ellwood spends his time relaxing hitting 3’s on the basketball court and following his beloved Clippers.