After all the speculation The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 broke its own franchise record at the box office last night.
Deadline reports that the final film in the quintet series surpassed its previous Thursday night-Friday midnight record and took $ 30.4 million in North America.
The new record beats the $ 30.25 million earned by The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 last year in late night/midnight screenings.
That film went on to take $138.1 million domestically in its opening weekend before ultimately banking $705.1 million worldwide.
A spokesman for Summit Entertainment said:
“The movie is off to a fantastic start.”
Now that the figures for Thursday night/midnight are in, all eyes will be watching to see how director Bill Condon’s finale installment performs over the rest of the weekend.
The closing chapter in the wildly successful vampire franchise has already racked up $ 38.8 million overseas.
Box office analysts are predicting Breaking Dawn – Part 2 could earn up to $ 150 million in North America and topple the $ 142. 8 million domestic record currently held by the second film in the series New Moon .
[ Update : Deadline reports that Breaking Dawn – Part 2 is “running behind” Part 1’s $ 138.1 million domestic debut and is expected to cap at around $135 million this weekend for US-Canada, $65 million of that belonging to Friday night].
The series’ leads Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner took their final bow today at the last premiere in Berlin.
Meanwhile, the number crunching continues as The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 opens in a total of 61 foreign markets this weekend.
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 stars Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner, Michael Sheen, Dakota Fanning, Mackenzie Foy, Peter Facinelli, Kellan Lutz, Jackson Rathbone, Nikki Reed, Elizabeth Reaser and Ashley Greene and is out in theaters across the US, Canada, Europe and the UK now.
