'New Moon' opening weekend is the 3rd highest ever

The Twilight Saga: New Moon opened so strong with an amazing $72.7 million last Friday in the US.

It's actually the highest opening day receipts ever beating The Dark Knight's previous record of $67.2 million last year.

And for its weekend tally, New Moon's boxoffice receipts totaled $140.7 million, placing 3rd all-time highest opening weekend behingd The Dark Knight's $158.4 million in 2008 and Spider-Man 3's $151.1 million two years ago.

US BOXOFFICE ESTIMATES
November 20-22, 2009

1. "The Twilight Saga: New Moon," $140.7 million
2. "The Blind Side," $34.5 million
3. "2012," $26.5 million
4. "Planet 51," $12.6 million
5. "Disney's A Christmas Carol," $12.2 million
6. "Precious: Based on the Novel `Push' by Sapphire," $11 million
7. "The Men Who Stare at Goats," $2.8 million
8. "Couples Retreat," $2 million
9. "The Fourth Kind," $1.7 million
10. "Law Abiding Citizen," $1.6 million

The first Twilight movie shown exactly the same period last year only had $69.6 million opening weekend.

The 3rd Twilight entitled "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" is scheduled for release in the middle of 2010.