6th June, 2010, saw the premiere of Twilight: Eclipse...
I have to admit that I haven't seen any of the Twilight films and am probably not likely to. So I didn't go to the cinema in June 2010 to watch the third installment of the lucrative Twilight series, but many did and it's that that I would like to discuss here.
Eclipse was premiered on 6 June, 2010 and then released later on that month, the only one of the series to be released in the summer months. The other four films were released in November. It's common knowledge that there are two periods of the year that the films with the highest budgets are released, the summer and the autumn. I guess from reams of research, the experts have decided that at these times of the year more people go to the cinema. In the last 10 years that has definitely moved slightly and now it seems that the majority of the films are released in the autumn. Children's films come out in the summer, ready for the holidays and the big blockbusters come out in the Fall. In fact, analysing the release dates of the past Oscar winners, out of the 86 winners of Best Picture over a half of them were released in October, November and December.
The theory is true, well according to the Twilight series. The summer release, Eclipse, earned the least amount and also was the lowest making film of the sequels in regards to the worldwide gross. I wonder why the studio or distribution company, or both decided to released Eclipse in the summer and I wonder why we, the cinema-goer, decide to flock the theatres in the autumn? These questions are all easily answerable and the weather is probably the obvious solution, but there's a further question that makes me ponder!
Does the public's knowledge that the "bigger" films are released in the Fall, make us wait for that time? Therefore, fulfilling the theory ourselves! I say let's revolt, let's all go the cinema in March, April or June and take your friends, this could be the beginning of the end for the "Fall Theory"! UP THE REVOLUTION!
by Russell Farnham
Now, what I wanted to look at was whether this theory affected the ticket sales for Eclipse and how it compared to the other films in the series. So, using the box office opening weekend gross I have made a list of monies taken by the films. All numbers are taken from the excellent Box Office Mojo.
5 - Eclipse (June, 2010) - $64,832,191
4 - Twilight (Nov, 2008) - $69,637,740
3 - Breaking Dawn: Part 1 (Nov, 2011) - $138,122,261
2 - Breaking Dawn: Part 2 (Nov, 2012) - $141,067,634
1 - New Moon (Nov, 2009) $142,839,137
