(From NYTimes) – “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” sunk its fangs into multiplexes on Wednesday morning, selling a record-setting $30 million in tickets for 12:01 a.m. shows.
“Eclipse,” the third film in the phenomenally popular series, beat the industry’s previous midnight record-holder, “The Twilight Saga: New Moon,” which opened to $26.3 million in November. “Eclipse” also set an Imax record for midnight grosses, selling over $1 million and beating “Transformers 2,” according to Hollywood.com, which compiles ticketing data.
(From NYPost.com) – “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse,” collected an estimated record $30 million for midnight showings Thursday night, and stands a good chance of topping the six-day July 4 extended weekend record of $180 million set by “Spider Man 2” — though probably not the $220 all-time six-day record held by “The Dark Knight.” Of course, “Eclipse” will benefit from greatly inflated ticket prices, including 3-D surcharges.
(From PopWatch.com) –
1. Jacob makes his entrance. Taylor Lautner, whom EW critic Owen Gleiberman described as “the young Matt Damon in the body of Marky Mark,” gets a classic turn-around shot. He’s wearing a shirt, and the ladies still went crazy. (To be fair, that T-shirt does fit him well.)
2. Jacob shows up shirtless at the Bella swap. Our first view of flesh. I’d argue this bit is more successful than the New Moon T-shirt removal after Bella’s motorcycle accident simply because this time, they did a better job of masking the fact that this Taylor Lautner Bicep Watch moment was presented solely for our benefit. Jacob wanted to annoy Edward with his hotness. I bought it.
3. Bella finally accepts Edward’s proposal. Were we cheering because we want them together…or because we wanted Edward to stop proposing?
4. Jacob uses a double entendre! In what could become the most talked about tent scenesince Brokeback Mountain, Jacob has to spend a night holding Bella to keep her from freezing — as Edward watches. “Let’s face it, I am hotter than you,” Jacob says. (This will likely be fans’ favorite Lautner line. I, however, am more partial to “I kissed Bella, and she broke her hand punching my face,” delivered dryly to Charlie.)
5. Bella asks Jacob to kiss her. It wasn’t as tortuous a turn-on as the slow lean bedroom kiss Bella shared with Edward in the first film, but this one definitely felt longer. And you wanted it to continue. Lautner is made to play action heroes who make time for a little romance. His first love scene will have the rewind numbers of Nipplegate.
6. Edward takes a bite out of someone. It feels wrong to say who, even with the spoiler alert issued above. So let’s just discuss how cool vampire deaths were in this movie. No blood. No dust. Just body parts breaking off like ice.
7. The credits roll. Honestly, this is the first Twilight film I would recommend to someone who hasn’t read the books.