娱乐英语新闻:"The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" handily tops box office with spell over young moviegoers

LOS ANGELES, July 4 (Xinhua) -- Owing to its massive spell to young moviegoers and girls in particular, "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" handily swept the July 4th weekend box office, grossing a 69 million U.S. dollars opening weekend with many firsts.

Opening on approximately 8,000 screens at an opening-record 4, 416 sites, the third movie based on the best-selling vampire romance novels has set three other records: it is the top-grosser of midnight screenings with 30 million dollars in movie ticket receipt, beating the previous record of 26.3 million dollars which was set in November 2009 by the last "Twilight" movie, "New Moon;" it's also the largest Wednesday gross of all time surpassing " Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" by 7 million dollars, and the top-grossing summer day ever, surpassing "The Dark Knight" (67.2 million dollars).

Built on its word-of-mouth to young movie buffs and especially girls who flocked to movie theaters in Canada and the United States to see the latest installment on the vampire sage, the flick will rack up 161.7 million dollars in projected sales since opening last Wednesday, according to projected statistics released by the North America box office authority.

Cast members Robert Pattinson (L), Kristen Stewart (C) and Taylor Lautner pose at the premiere of "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" during the Los Angeles Film Festival at Nokia theatre at L.A. Live in Los Angeles June 24, 2010.

"The Last Airbender" debuted at second position with 40.7 million dollars. A Paramount live-action film adaptation based on the first season of the hugely successful Nickelodeon animated television series "Avatar: The Last Airbender," the epic adventure fantasy film which stars Noah Ringer, Nicola Peltz and Jackson Rathbone, tells how the hero, as the lone Avatar with the power to manipulate all four elements, restore balance to their war-torn world. It is estimated to rake 53.2 million dollars over the weekend since opening Thursday.

Into the third week of run in North America, "Toy Story 3" is third which is on track for a 30.2 million dollars take. The Pixar/ Disney animated blockbuster has grossed 289 million in dollars in domestic sales, and is closing on the 300 million-dollar benchmark.

"Grown Ups," a Sony/Columbia comedy written and starred by Adam Sandler is in fourth place, with an estimated 18.5 million dollars in sales this weekend, and a two-week run of 77 million dollars for Sony/Columbia.

And in fifth place is "Knight & Day," an action comedy starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz,, with a projected weekend take of 10. 2 million dollars for Fox, and a two-week total of 45.5 million dollars.