"The Twilight Saga: New Moon" smashed the record for a single-day opening at the North American box office, and was on track to score one of the biggest weekend tallies of all time, according to preliminary data issued on Saturday.
The vampire romance sequel earned $72.7 million across the United States and Canada on Friday, a figure that includes record-breaking midnight sales of $26.3 million, said the film's closely held distributor Summit Entertainment.
The old record for a single-day opening was $62.2 million, held by last year's "Batman" sequel "The Dark Knight," which went on to become the second-biggest grossing movie of all time in North America before accounting for inflation.
Such heights could be difficult for the "Twilight" sequel to attain. Still, industry observers expect it could finish up with upwards of $125 million for the weekend once Saturday sales data and Sunday estimates are issued early on Sunday.
That would place the film at No. 4 in the record books, behind "The Dark Knight" ($158 million), "Spider-Man 3" ($151 million), and "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" ($136 million), and ahead of "Shrek the Third" ($122 million), according to tracking firm Box Office Mojo.
The previous record for midnight sales was held by "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," which kicked off its run with $22.2 million in sales in July.
