LOS ANGELES (AP) — It's been awhile since a film debuted with over $100 million, but the wait is over as Summit Entertainment's "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 1" opens very wide at 4,000 theaters to take a huge bite out of the domestic box office.
The PG-13 film gets a head-start on the weekend, opening just past midnight on Friday, and a massive Friday-through-Sunday gross in excess of $130 million is expected.
"New Moon," the first film in the "Twilight" franchise, opened on Friday, Nov. 20, 2009, and went on to earn $142.8 million in its first three days after posting a record single-day gross of $72.7 million. So far, "New Moon" and last summer's "Eclipse" have earned nearly $1.8 billion in global revenue.
" 'Dawn' picks up where 'Eclipse' left off, with our heroes Edward (Robert Pattinson) and Bella (Kristen Stewart) set to wed. The wedding is as storybook as the romance, which explains why there are so many 'Twilight' moms: Bella is perceptive and patient, saving sex for marriage. Edward is loyal and has been waiting a century to lose his virginity. See a zombie be that patient." — Scott Bowles, USA Today
"The 'Twilight' movies have devoted three episodes to Bella Swan's clinging to her virginity despite the compelling appeal of Edward Cullen, the vampire. Now comes 'The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1,' in which you have to give her credit: She holds out until after her wedding. Then she and Edward fly to Brazil and a luxurious honeymoon hideaway on the beach, where the morning after her wedding night she is black and blue with bruises, the frame of the bed is broken, all of the furniture is tossed around and the draperies are shredded. Good gravy! What happened? We have no idea. The movie doesn't show us! Yes, the most eagerly awaited deflowering in recent movie history takes place entirely off-screen." — Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
"As Jacob, Edward's long-suffering, oft-rejected rival for Bella's affection, Mr. Lautner has plenty of reasons to strip angry: he can turn into a wolf, for starters, and Jacob's musculature has long been one of the most special of the movies' effects. That's reason enough for Mr. Condon to get the character's shirt off, as is the unavoidable truth that Mr. Lautner, whose pumped physique and flat affect bring to mind one of those friendly pizza delivery boys in a pornographic movie, remains a dish best served with as few words and clothes as possible." — Manohla Dargis, The New York Times


On Splitting Up "Breaking Dawn"
"When the decision was made to split Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows into two films to bring that blockbuster series to a close, there was cynical talk regarding mercenary motives to milk as many dollars as possible out of the franchise. Once the films came out, however, that talk stopped, so emphatically did the massive narrative incident justify the extended length. On the basis of 'Breaking Dawn - Part 1,' though, the same cannot be said of this series ender, which feels as bloated and anemic as Bella becomes during her pregnancy." — Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood ReporterFinal Word
"The fourth film in the 'Twilight' series reveals a flash or two of real filmmaking (mostly in a suggestively grotesque birthing sequence), enough to save it from pure lousiness. But a significant number of its 117 minutes do seem like hours, and whenever certain actors take the lead and set the pace of the dialogue, time itself begins to crawl backward and the breaking dawn begins to feel like yesterday's breaking dawn, or last Tuesday's." — Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune




























