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Brett Beach: I undersold the tally. I undersold the tally (see last week's MMBQ). What I find interesting about this figure is that, unlike a lot of the major releases in the last two years, it comes without the benefit of 3D or IMAX tickets. That's 100% all natural high ticket prices alone, folks! All kidding aside, I am not sure if I can find a reason for this that truly sums it all up for me. I do consider the fever pitch around New Moon's release akin to the hysteria surrounding Sinatra as a teen idol in the 1940s or The Beatles in the 1960s. It's fueled (largely) by the burgeoning sexuality of adolescent girls which it seems has always been a powerful commercial force when channeled narrowly. I knew that New Moon was going to be huge when I began to understand that there was not one but two male leads for the ladies to choose from. It's like two Tiger Beat posters for the price of one. But THIS huge? No, I didn't think it was possible, not driven largely by women. The stats I have heard thrown about are 4/5 female and over half under 21 for the opening weekend audience. On a side note: from the standpoint of art or commerce, I have no idea why these books have struck the chord they have. I read Twilight and thought it was about 20% worthwhile, got about ten pages into New Moon and threw in the towel. Having glanced at the plots for the last two books, my two reactions are a) Really? Really? and B) How the hell are they going to keep these at a PG-13 level?

Shalimar Sahota: Never seen Twilight. New Moon isn't a priority for me. Wouldn't have even predicted this to make over $100 over the weekend. And of all films, I wouldn't have expected this to break the record for midnight screenings (Are parents letting their teens go to midnight screenings by themselves!? Would these be same parents giving them contraceptives for birthdays and Christmas?). People I work with are currently going through the books, and the Twilight DVDs have been big sellers, especially in the sales. With extra people catching up, having missed it last year, it might explain how this doubled the first films weekend total.

Also going by reviews, Chris Weitz has destroyed another adaptation, resulting in a film worse than The Golden Compass (New Moon is currently 29% fresh at Rotten Tomatoes compared to 42% for The Golden Compass). Yet it's New Moon that has already taken in more than The Golden Compass accomplished during its entire run! Proof that you need to lay a rotten egg to strike gold?

Michael Lynderey: This franchise has reached the peak point of its popularity. Unlike, say, 2012, New Moon isn't a movie that goes after a broad cross-section of audiences - rather, it's got one particular (and massive) demographic that it targets and appeals to, with a vengeance; and now, we've seen the power of that demographic to reshape the box office in ways that are inexplicable to me. That opening day number - $72 million - was humbling. Just how much money can a movie make in 24 hours? In fact, I've been suspecting something for a while now - that a film will indeed make $100 million in one day within the next several years - and now I am sure it is going to happen (on December 21, 2012, perhaps? wink, wink). What's the cap off point on these openings, I wonder? Surely, there must be one.

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