Twilight's Vampires Have Plenty of Bite at the Box Office

I know this will come as a huge shock to anyone who has been living under a rock for the past several months of Twilight mania, but I'll just spill it: The movie, based on a series of books for teens, did phenomenally well at the box office. Starting with sold-out midnight screenings on Thursday, it went on to make $70.6 million in its opening weekend, joining an elite group of films to become profitable in a matter of days, a boon for small film company Summit Entertainment, which made the movie on a relative dime ($37 million to make the movie, another $30 million in marketing). And it jumped ahead of last week's box office winner Quantum of Solace for the fourth-highest opening weekend this year.

The question is whether it has staying power, because if all those squealing fans who went to see it hated it, the second one might not be able to do quite so well. And if they don't all see it multiple times, it might not be able to make the kind of money that, say, a Harry Potter or a Batman is capable of.

It was a close race for the second spot of the week, with Quantum of Solace squeaking it out with $27.4 million over Bolt's $27 million. That puts Quantum, the latest Bond movie, at $109.5 million after only two weekends. Bolt's take proved that there's room for a kids' movie on any weekend against virtually any competition. In fact, movies for kids or teens or tweens continued to be hot on down the box office chart, with Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa making another $16 million, good enough for fourth for the weekend and $137.5 overall in its third week. Kids and tweens kept High School Musical 3: Senior Year in the mix, too, as it brought in another $2 million in seventh place.

The top 10:

1. Twilight, $70,553,000 (first week)
2. Quantum Of Solace, $27,400,000 ($109,483,000 in two weeks)
3. Bolt, $27,000,000 (first week)
4. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, $16,000,000 ($137,447,000 in three weeks)
5. Role Models, $7,229,000 ($48,037,000 in three weeks)
6. Changeling, $2,643,000 ($31,613,000 in five weeks)
7. High School Musical 3: Senior Year, $2,006,000 ($86,821,000 in five weeks)
8. Zack and Miri Make a Porno, $1,700,000 ($29,350,000 in four weeks)
9. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, $1,673,000 ($2,653,000 in three weeks)
10. The Secret Life of Bees, $1,275,000 ($35,649,000 in six weeks)

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