Midnight box office: Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn 2 earns $30.4 million in Thursday 10pm and 12:01am showings.

The bad thing about the incredibly consistency of The Twilight Saga is how little there is to add when the box office numbers come rolling in.  This fifth and final installment racked up another $30.4 million in midnight and Thursday 10pm showings.  Now on one hand, it's right in line with the $30.25 million that Breaking Dawn part I earned at midnight and the $30.1 million that Eclipse snagged 2.5 years ago at midnight.  It's also a token uptick from the $26 million that New Moon earned at 12:01am this weekend back in 2009.  On the other hand, one has to wonder what effect the 10pm showings had on the figures.  It would seem that they had little effect, as there weren't too many people such as myself who are too old to do midnight showings but can handle a 10pm screening.  Anyway, what this means is that we may not be seeing much of a 'series finale' uptick as might have been expected.  Point being, we're looking at a debut between $138 million and $166 million, depending on if it was as frontloaded as Breaking Dawn part I (likely - 21% of the weekend gross at midnight) vs. New Moon (unlikely, - 18% of the weekend gross at midnight - save for potential repeat viewing over the weekend by uber hardcore fans).  Of course, presuming there is no finale bump and the film is even more frontloaded, then we're looking at 23% of the gross already accounted for with around $132 million for the weekend.  If it ends up as frontloaded as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part II (25% of its weekend at midnight), then Twilight 5 ends the weekend with $121 million.  No matter where it lands in this spectrum, The Twilight Saga goes out with its financial head held high.

Scott Mendelson

Review: The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn part II (2012) finishes the franchise on a relative high note.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn part 2
2012
110 minutes
rated PG-13

by Scott Mendelson

As a would-be series finale, the biggest problem with Breaking Dawn part 2 is that  it really doesn't feel like the end of anything, nor does it feel like a natural stopping point.  This is not a finale in the vein of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part II, where the series-long conflict is brought to a definitive end and the characters end in places from which they can not go back.  Nor is it akin to Back to the Future III, which attempts to bring its narrative full-circle and finish the specific story that it has been telling while leaving the door open for more adventures down the line.  The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn part 2 basically plays like just another chapter in the lives of its main characters, one that qualifies as the end purely because the author of the original novels, Stephenie Myer, decided to stop.  The story does continue the adventures of Bella, Jacob, and the Cullen vampire clan, offering a completely new conflict at the end of its first act purely to actually have a conflict at all.  Obviously this is a source material problem, but don't expect the 'this is the end!' goosebumps that you got during the opening reels of Return of the King.  As merely a Twilight film, it's not half-bad.  If only by default, it's the best Twilight sequel and comes the closest to the irreverent shaggy dog charm of Catherine Hardwicke's original installment.

Don't think, just run! Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn part II gets a goofy but charmingly dumb poster.

Umm, I guess they are all going for a quick jog.  And I'd make the joke that "Edward, Jacob, and Bella are jogging right at *you*!", but this is the rare tent-pole franchise of the last three years to never go the 3D route (and kudos to Summit for that).  Yes, this is a silly poster, which is fitting for the end of a rather silly series that I have a certain fondness for.  I have an essay hidden away until closer before the film's release about why the Twilight Saga was actually a worthwhile and important franchise, but that can wait.  For now, let us feast our eyes on the almost courageously goofy one-sheet artwork, as well as the 'epic finale that will live forever' tagline that is both too wordy and too late.  This isn't Return of the King or Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part II.  This is a series finale that apparently climaxes with a battle about the same scale as the 'lets all kill each other in the snow' smack-down that closed The Golden Compass.  Still, in an era with any number of would-be Potter pretenders that never made it past their initial installments, The Twilight Saga should be proud that they made it to the end and got to summarily close the book on their own franchise in their own terms.  Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn part II opens November 16th, 2012.  As always, we'll see, but I've come this far.

Scott Mendelson 

Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn II gets a final trailer.

Updated with the full trailer...
Summit/Lionsgate know they don't have to hard sell, although it's a little sad watching them try to sell their series finale (featuring a couple dozen vampires and a few wolves fighting in the snow) as  anything as epic as The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King or Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part II.  The only real box office questions are whether the real life gossip fodder surrounding Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson will have an effect and/or whether the film will get any kind of hard 'series finale bump'.  I'm guessing no to both questions.  I'm guessing an opening weekend a little higher than New Moon's $142 million, if only for inflation, and then a swift theatrical play that gets the film just past Eclipse's $300 million domestic total.  Anyway, this one is two months away.  As always we'll see.  I've made it this far with this critically complicated but worthwhile little franchise.  I'll be there for the end.

Scott Mendelson

Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn part II gets a trailer.

I've been whining a lot about sledgehammer-style advertising campaigns, so I must give kudos to this brief and concise trailer.  It's about 75-seconds long and does little more than set up the story and offer a few alleged money shots.  What I do find amusing is that this trailer isn't even trying to sell the idea that this series finale has anything approaching the scope and pathos of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part II.  Yes there is a final battle of sorts, but it's clear that it's about on the scale of the action finale from The Golden Compass, which was basically a street fight as far as fantasy battle scenes are concerned.  Maybe the next trailer will sell the emotional highs, but of course I'd argue that there doesn't need to be a 'next trailer'.  I can't imagine anyone who isn't already a Twi-Hard not seeing this in theaters, while the whole 'series finale' enticement will only rope in so many casual fans. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn part II opens on November 16th, 2012, or the 11th-anniversary of the opening of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, for whatever that's worth.  It's opening unapposed, as its Skyfall the previous weekend, but considering there are five (!) movies opening over Thanksgiving, I imagine something will end up opening alongside one of the two films (Ang Lee's Life of Pi perhaps?) As always, we'll see.  

Scott Mendelson

Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn part I gets a trailer.

There isn't much to add here.  Once again I am intrigued at how much these trailers seem to be treating the seemingly sought-after finale (Edward and Bella get married) as a genuine tragedy, with the resulting pregnancy-of-doom as some kind of punishment.  As it is, each installment looks and feels more cinematic and polished than the last and this Bill Condon installment is no exception.  I enjoy these pictures more or less as guilty pleasures, relishing the time spent with the supporting cast as opposed to the three main romantic leads.  Of course, even many a fan kinda hated the final book of the series, so it will be interesting to see if said literary failure has any effect on the box office for the last two installments.  Come what may, the second-highest three-day weekend of 2011 is all-but guaranteed.  Breaking Dawn part I drops on November 18th.  As always, we'll see...

Scott Mendelson