Twilight Eclipse Movie

The third leg of Stephanie Meyer’s “Twilight” book series sold $68.5 million of movie tickets in its North American debut Wednesday, the second-biggest opening ever.

“The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” fell short of the $72.7 million “New Moon” took in last November when it opened the Friday before Thanksgiving. “Eclipse” tops the prior Wednesday-opening record of $62 million set a year ago by “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.”

“Eclipse,” distributed by Summit Entertainment, is playing at a record 4,416 theaters in North America. The movie also saw some $30 million in ticket sales for midnight and early morning showings, also a new high.

Ticket sales are expected to remain strong throughout the Independence Day weekend, typically one of the strongest movie-going periods of the year. Box-office analysts are on watch for whether “Eclipse” can top “Spider-Man 2,” which in 2004 also opened Wednesday, June 30 and took in $180.1 million in its first six days of release, still the record for a July 4 period. The overall 6-day record is 2008’s “The Dark Knight” at $222.2 million.

Use the comment feature to tell us and your fellow Twilight Fans what you thought about the new movie! One of the reviewers will win a Twilight Eclipse Poster!

We’ll announce the winner Tuesday!

Twilight: Bryce Dallas Howard interview. Daughter of the Oscar-winning director Ron, Bryce Dallas Howard could have sailed into the film business. Instead her parents brought her up to muck out the barn. The unconventional actress talks about her starring role in Twilight: Eclipse.

New, never-bef0re-seen scenes from Twilight Eclipse.  Eclipse is due in theaters at the end of June !

Les Grossman Takes on Twilight’s Robert Pattinson & Taylor Lautner

Exclusive Eclipse Clip

Edward and Bella win best kiss at MTV’s Music Awards for the second straight time. And awkwardly makeout on screen!

Aziz Ansari talks Twilight (towards the end).