Summit Entertainment’s The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn–Part 1 opened with a sharp bite around the globe, grossing $139.5 million domestically and $144 million overseas for a franchise best $283.5 million.

In North America, Breaking Dawn wasn’t able to quite match the $142.8 million opening of The Twilight Saga: New Moon on the same weekend two years ago. However, Breaking Dawn made up for the gap at the international box office, where it opened day and date in 54 territories. New Moon opened day and date in only 25 territories, earning roughly $132.5 million.

Breaking Dawn set two key records: It’s the fifth largest opening ever at the domestic box office, and the 10th largest worldwide, supplanting New Moon, which took in $275.3 million. Thanks to Breaking Dawn, domestic revenues were up 14 percent over a year ago in a much-needed boost for the film business.

“We faced the weekend with some trepidation because you don’t really know on a fourth installment whether you are going to maintain the interest of your audience. The numbers seem to speak for themselves. We got as close to New Moon as we could,” Summit president of distribution Richie Fay said.

Females continued to drive the vampire franchise, making up 80 percent of North American ticket buyers. Breaking Dawn’s audience, however, skewed slightly older than the previous films, with 50 percent of the audience over the age of 25. Last year, 54 percent of the opening weekend audience for The Twilight Saga: Eclipse was under the age of 25.
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The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 grossed $30.25 million from midnight screenings in 3,521 theaters, according to Summit Entertainment.

The sum is the best-ever showing for the franchise, topping the $30.1 million total for The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.

Only Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 had a bigger opening midnight haul.

Breaking Dawn earned $8.9 million in overseas territory before even opening in the United States and Canada at 12:01 a.m. on Friday morning.
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