Twilight Eclipse Tops $260 Million

In November last year, Summit Entertainment released "The Twilight Saga: New Moon," the second installment of the franchise based on Stephenie Meyer's original novels. Though thrashed by critics and not loved by many fans too, the film was the third biggest opener in the history of cinema. "Eclipse," the threequel, failed to top that, but still shined at the international box office, The Independent reports.

 Though not by much, "Eclipse" fell short of expectations and failed to make more money at the box office than its predecessor, although, in all fairness, it also had a couple more days of limited screenings. On the bright side, even if with lower grossing, Summit remains confident that "Eclipse" will fare better in the long run. Also on the bright side, statistics show that a larger segment of the male audience was lured into theaters, as compared to "New Moon."

"The third installment in The Twilight Saga, Eclipse, earned $262 million worldwide during its first five days at the box office. It sold about $162 million worth of tickets in North America and earned $100 million internationally in 42 countries. Worldwide, the opening of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse outshined its predecessor New Moon in many countries, including Russia and Italy. The vampire thriller was the biggest opening day ever in Belgium and has started off well in Scandinavian territories. In the Philippines, it could overtake Spider-Man 3 for the weekend. In the US, despite the film's blockbuster opening, there were expectations that it would overcome New Moon figures. It could at the end of the first six-days," The Independent says.

However, the battle may be lost but the war is far from it: come next weekend, "Eclipse" will open nationwide in 22 additional countries and more on July 15, which is to say it still stands pretty good chances of making a killing at the box office. So far, as a consolation prize, fans have a report from E! Online saying that, unlike "New Moon" and despite what critics are saying, "Eclipse" did manage to bring in new fans from the male segment of the audience.

"The Twilight movies continue to grow on guys. Eclipse's opening weekend audience was 35 percent male, up from the 20 percent turn out for New Moon and the 18 percent for the original Twilight," E! writes, citing initial figures. This is precisely what director David Slade was aiming for – and what the cast has been prophesying all along but few believed possible.