'New Moon' On Track To Shatter Box Office Expectations

Robert Pattinson kills at the box office.

New Moon's first weekend even better than expected.

We reported earlier this weekend that, the midnight release of The Twilight Saga: New Moon on November 20 broke a record for the highest ticket sales ever in a midnight cinema showing at a whopping $26.3 million. The film's box office figure was expected to reach $85 mill by weekend's end, but by mid-day Saturday (and despite negative reviews), it had already cashed in at over $72 million in the U.S.

Saturday morning the American box office stat checked in at $72.7 million in just over 24 hours of screening. Movie theaters all around the United States and Canada saw lines...and lines...and lines...of hundreds of theater-goers for every single one of the film's showings at 4,024 theaters.

And even for fans who purchase advance tickets on sites like Fandango.com, the ticketing line is a must. We're curious to see how many fans had purchased advance tickets only to turn discouraged when they saw the size of the will-call queue.

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At this rate it's possible that New Moon could kill the box office record held by Spiderman 3, which banked $151 million in its first weekend of release in May 2007.