Hey, did you hear about this little movie called The Twilight Saga: New Moon? I heard a rumor that this vampire/werewolf/teen emo romp was rather popular and that its success at the box office this past weekend was more than a sure thing. Given how much money everyone knew this film would make over the weekend, it still managed to surprise, making WAY more: $140.7 million to be exact.

This is  the third largest opening weekend of all time, behind The Dark Knight's much-touted record of $158,411,483 million and Spider-Man 3's $151,116,516. The film (along with Sandra Bullock romcom, The Blind Side) also helped push the weekend's overall business numbers to its second-best ever, just behind the weekend that...you guessed it, The Dark Knight debuted along with Bolt.

Rest easy, Batman fanboys. The Twilight Saga has not overtaken your (okay, "our") precious Dark Knight...yet. However, should you have this fear, there is definite cause for concern. Let's break this down, shall we?:

1. They are practically churning these films out at an extraordinary rate. It's been close to exactly one year since the first Twilight film was released and the third film, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse is already in production, ready to hit on June 30, 2010. The people behind these films are smart in that they are striking while the iron is white hot. It's odd since it's not like the Harry Potter films, where you had to worry about the actors growing up too quickly. Even though these stars can pull off "brooding teenager" for at least a good decade at their ages, there seems to be no slowdown at the Twilight factory. As a result, it will ride a huge wave of precisely-timed momentum. (Because it will die down eventually.)

2. New Moon's performance was nearly analogous to the first film's, except that the numbers were nearly doubled. By that, I mean it's opening day yielded $72.7 million (giving it the all-time top spot ) plus $26.3 million added from midnight showings. Afterward, (like the first film) it saw a dramatic 40% mid-weekend drop. However, the first Twilight, managed to recover from its drop, cruising its way towards its $192,769,854 domestic total. Whether or not New Moon will also be able to overcome this remains to be seen. However, its initial success makes a pretty good argument for the franchise's staying power.

3. What may have already been a moral victory for New Moon, was the fact that it actually accomplished its massive weekend gross on 342 theaters less than record holder, The Dark Knight. Considering that the sure-fire hit first Twilight film played on 375 less theaters, the monstrous numbers for this sequel are sure to yield a lot more venues for next summer's Eclipse. Make no mistake, the Twilight franchise is eyeballing that top spot, and its chances of nabbing it are more than good.

My Prediction: We will live in a brooding, melodramatic, dystopian world where all will be controlled not by governments or even dictatorships, but rather, from "Edward's dreamy eyes" and "Jacob's rippled abs." All will bow before the Twilight Gods as they communicate to the masses via microwaves of hunkiness, as the world will become enslaved by their unholy supernatural control over our teenage girls. It will only be through the secret resistance comprised of forces from all over the world, that the Twilight Gods, with their "Dreamy Eyes" and "Rippled Abs" will eventually be toppled. For one brief moment, people around the world of all ethnicities and religions will put their differences aside and come together to throttle the hunky tyrants and free the world from their enslavement. Viva la résistance!

...Or something like that.

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