The Official Numbers Are In

Nikki Finke breaks down how the success isn’t just limited to the US:

NEW MOON grossed $118.1 million from 6,681 prints in 25 markets in its first 5 days of release. That brought its worldwide gross to $258.8 million so far. A number of markets are still to report:”

Check out more from Nikki on Deadline Hollywood.

Larry From ProNetworks explains what this all means in language non-industry people can understand.

UPDATE 4:00 PM MONDAY:

ACTUALS ARE IN: The final domestic box office numbers for this past weekend show that The Twilight Saga: New Moon took in $142.8M. This is the official tally which, including the actual number for Sunday, has been revised upward by $2.1M from the previously announced $140.7M. This also results in an increase in the per theater average from $34,965 to $35,497.

Here is the reason why this overall number is higher than the one reported by the industry yesterday. After the Saturday box office totals came in on Sunday morning, the studio estimated what Sunday would be and came up with a weekend projection. That is standard industry procedure. Of course, Sunday and weekend figures can only be estimated at that point. The actual Sunday numbers weren’t known until today (posted below). The actual numbers that come in on Monday are usually not too far off from the estimates made on Sunday. They usually adjust slightly up or down but are rarely far off. In this case, the number was underestimated, meaning that the percentage drop from Saturday to Sunday was smaller than anticipated and more people went to see New Moon than had been predicted. So the final number is revised upward by $2.1M. That may not sound like a lot, but think about this: of the top 90 films out this weekend, 83 made less than $2.1M.”

For more of Larry’s explanation on what the number mean, click here.