Daily Box Office for Friday, November 20, 2009 - Box Office Mojo

Daily Box Office for Friday, November 20, 2009

This looks like a misprint or a typo, but it is not. New Moon just had the highest single day in the history of American movies. Not just for November, but for any month. The previous record was held by The Dark Knight at $67 million. New Moon took in $72 million, and it did so in fewer theaters than any other film in the top seven. Dark Knight's highest average per theater was $15,384. Twilight went over $18,000! My son and daughter-in-law planned to go last night - that particular theater was sold out until Monday the 30th!

When you create a bar graph to compare New Moon to other non-summer openings, it looks like Shaq playing against pre-schoolers. The previous record for a single non-summer day was $40 million. New Moon was almost as high as the previous first and second place days added together (those happened to be the first two days of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire). The record for a non-Potter non-summer opening was held by the previous Twilight film, and this one doubled that total!