In case the long lines outside your local multiplex haven’t tipped you off, “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” opened on Wednesday and it’s huge.
The film shattered midnight screening records on Wednesday night, hauling in nearly $30 million dollars and it looks like the massive crowds didn’t stop coming. The Wednesday tally for the film ended up at $68.5 million. Again, “Twilight: Eclipse” earned $68.5 million in 24 hours. Good lord. That news is certainly making Summit happy because that number is just a touch above the $68 million budget for the film.
In a summer where tentpoles and blockbusters are underperforming left and right, certainly the big studios are looking at Summit enviously for continuing to build on the success of their franchise. We have give them props for their simple yet effective approach of keeping their costs manageable. Here’s some comparison math for you: “The Last Airbender,” which is supposed to the a franchise launcher cost $280 million when you factor in marketing costs. Insane.
Most estimates expect “Twilight: Eclipse” to surpass “Spider-Man 2” for the record of biggest six-day July 4th open, which should put the figure around $200 million (or, enough money to put “The Last Airbender 2” into production).
RAGE!!!!!!!
but what were the marketing costs of Eclipse? I'm not suggesting that the total would reach that of air bender…but apples to apples please.
You guys do understand that a studio/distributor doesn't get back 100% of the box office gross, right? The concept of "making as much as its budget" is a meaningless one.
I'm not so sure I would give Summit "props" for keeping their budgets so low. Fans should be disgusted they are being so badly ripped off with poor production values and laughable FX on top of a movie that was obviously very fast tracked (to its disadvantage) so as to capitalize on the phenomenon.
This is one of the main differences between a very good franchise, like Harry Potter, and a overly shitty one, like Twilight. Potter keeps pumping more money into subsequent films in an attempt to always improve and give a quality product, which they undoubtedly deliver on at least from a production value standpoint. Summit could easily afford to increase these budgets for such a sure bet franchise, yet they continue to rape it for all its worth and royally screw their fans… in the ass… not to mention fueling the fire on the whole backlash front with the resulting turd sandwich of a movie.