'Breaking Dawn Part 1' bites into $139.5M (HWD)

By Paul Dergarabedian

It's been awhile since we've had a film debut with over $100 million, but the wait is over as Summit Entertainment's "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1" debuts with $139,500,000 - the fifth best opening weekend of all time.

Starting at 12:01am on Friday, the film got a head start on the weekend with the second-biggest midnight gross of $30.25 million and then went on to generate the third best single-day gross ever with $72 million.

Internationally in 54 territories the film earned $144 million for a worldwide weekend total of $283.5 million. It is clear that there is no further proof necessary that teenage girls can rule the box office with fully 80% of the "Breaking Dawn" box office being generated by females. With the addition of these latest figures, the franchise has now topped the $2 billion mark in worldwide box office.

"New Moon" which opened on Friday November 20, 2009, went on to earn $142.8 million in its first 3 days after posting a then-record single-day gross of $72.7 million in the wake of $27.27 million in midnight grosses alone. The last installment, "Eclipse," opened on a Wednesday in the summer of 2010 and generated $68.5 million in its first day with a record $30 million plus in midnight screenings and a weekend gross of $64.8 million.

The rest of the weekend breaks down as follows:

Warner Bros.' "Happy Feet Two," whose predecessor debuted on the same weekend in 2006 at number one with $41.5 million, skated into 3,606 theaters. Offering a perfect alternative for families and kids to the older-skewing vampire and werewolf tale, the cute PG-rated penguins made their mark with a gross of $22 million for a second place finish.

This put Relativity Media's "Immortals 3D" in third place with a gross of $12.2 million. In the wake of a solid and better-than-expected number one debut last weekend of $32.2 million, the action-fantasy starring Henry Cavill and Luke Evans, has a stockpile of $53 million in North American revenues to date and even more overseas.

After a second place debut of $25 million, Adam Sandler's PG-rated holiday-themed comedy "Jack and Jill" from Sony will enter its sophomore session with around $30 million already in the stocking. Twelve million for Friday through Sunday pushed it to around $41 million by the end of the weekend.

Paramount/DreamWorks' family film juggernaut "Puss in Boots" took the fifth spot with $10.7 million and has rung up a healthy $122.3 million to date.

Fox Searchlight's Oscar contender "The Descendants" starring George Clooney and directed by Alexander Payne had a stellar debut with $1.2 million for a 10th place debut in just 29 theaters. The film will expand in the coming weeks and should generate huge buzz and strong box office numbers through the holidays.