With a total revenue of over three billion dollars, the Twilight saga box office numbers are truly impressive. Based on Stephanie Meyer's series of fantasy romance novels, the Twilight saga consisted of five movies released annually between 2008 and 2012. Despite generally mixed-to-negative reviews from critics, each movie in the Twilight saga did outstandingly well with audiences and helped launch several similar Young Adult novel adaptations. Although many of the films made in its mold at the time failed commercially, Twilight itself remains an excellent example of the subgenre's capability for financial success.
Throughout its five movies, the Twilight saga details the relationship between human teenager Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) and vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). However, the Twilight saga wasn't initially supposed to last for that many entries. Twilight's original book sequel, Forever Dawn, would have seen the series come to a close after only two novels. If this had come to pass, the most financially successful vampire film franchise ever would have never had the chance to blossom as it did. Here's how much money each of the five Twilight movies made at the box office.
Twilight
The first entry in the Twilight saga grossed over $407 million at the worldwide box office during its theatrical release, against a production budget of only $37 million. A sequel to Twilight was announced after it nearly made back its entire production budget on its opening day. Twilight grossed just shy of $70 million domestically on its opening weekend, culminating in a total domestic box office take of nearly $193 million. Twilight became the 12th highest-grossing film of 2008, outperforming blockbuster action movies such as Edward Norton's The Incredible Hulk and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.
Although the original Twilight movie was undeniably financially successful, critical reviews for the film were relatively mixed. On Rotten Tomatoes, Twilight has a critical score of only 49%, indicating that a small majority of the reviews were negative. However, this did little to deter audiences from watching Twilight, given the film's success with audiences and fans of Stephanie Meyer's novels. Although Twilight's financial success would seem hard to replicate for the film's sequels, they would only go on to eclipse the original movie's box office.
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
The Twilight Saga: New Moon followed the original Twilight just shy of a year later. Released in November 2009, New Moon grossed over $709 million worldwide against a larger $50 million production budget. Similarly to the original Twilight, New Moon was an overnight sensation, having grossed $26.3 million from midnight showings alone. Despite being considered the weakest Twilight movie, New Moon ultimately grossed $72.7 million on its opening day, claiming the record for the biggest one-day gross ever from the previous title-holder, 2008's The Dark Knight. Worldwide, New Moon made just shy of a quarter of a billion dollars on its opening weekend.
What makes New Moon's financial success even more impressive is that it was released alongside The Blind Side on the same weekend, which could have potentially eaten into its box office. Instead, both films seemed to complement each other, with The Blind Side also posting strong results that weekend; the Sandra Bullock-led film would go on to gross $309 million and earn the actress an Oscar. New Moon also succeeded financially despite overwhelmingly negative reviews, setting the pattern that the Twilight saga could not be negatively affected by poor critical reception.
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
Eclipse, the third (and most underrated) entry in the Twilight saga, was released to financial success in June 2010, a mere seven months after New Moon. This short gap between movies did nothing to stop fans from scrambling to watch it. Eclipse broke New Moon's midnight opening record by making over $30 million at its first showings. By the end of its first day, Eclipse had grossed over $68.5 million, from both regular screens and IMAX showings. Several days later, Eclipse grossed $64.8 million domestically on its opening weekend, a significantly lower result than New Moon that can be explained by Eclipse's opening on a Wednesday.
By the end of its theatrical release, Eclipse had grossed just over $300 million domestically, beating New Moon by just under $4 million. However, Eclipse, which significantly altered the book's ending, performed slightly worse than New Moon internationally, grossing around $20 million less for a total of $698.4 million. This slight underperformance can be explained by the busier slate of films that Eclipse opened against, compared to New Moon. Eclipse had to compete with the opening of M. Night Shyamalan's infamous The Last Airbender, as well as holdouts such as Toy Story 3. However, Eclipse held strong against this competition and grossed over ten times its $68 million production budget.
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1
Breaking Dawn - Part 1 returned the Twilight saga to its regular mammoth opening weekend success when it was released in November 2011. The penultimate film in the Twilight saga opened at number one at the box office and grossed over $138.1 million in its opening weekend. The film dwarfed every other film at the box office that weekend, including the other opener, Happy Feet Two, which grossed a mere $21 million over those three days. Breaking Dawn - Part 1 remained at the domestic top spot for three weekends, despite the franchise's regular drop-offs, reaching $500 million in a series record of just 12 days.
While, domestically, Breaking Dawn - Part 1 only beat the original Twilight at the box office, it became the highest-grossing entry in the series so far, thanks to international markets. Once again for the Twilight saga, Breaking Dawn - Part 1 defied the critics, with a series-low Rotten Tomatoes score of 25%, which could have been different if Breaking Dawn had been filmed as originally planned. All in all, Breaking Dawn - Part 1 grossed $712 million worldwide during its theatrical release, against an increased production budget of $127 million and overwhelmingly negative reviews.
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2
Breaking Dawn - Part 2 was not only the final film in the Twilight saga but also the most financially successful. Against a reported production budget of $136 million, the highest of the entire Twilight franchise, Breaking Dawn - Part 2 made just under $830 million worldwide when it was released in November 2012. Breaking Dawn - Part 2 posted the best worldwide opening weekend for the entire Twilight saga at $340.9 million. Domestically, Breaking Dawn - Part 2 also performed fantastically: the film had the best result of the franchise for midnight screenings on its opening day, making $30.4 million from them alone.
In total, Breaking Dawn - Part 2 grossed $71.2 million on its opening day, domestically, in spite of Renesmee's infamous CGI. The total for its domestic opening weekend came in at $141 million, making it the second-best for the franchise, behind New Moon. Reviews-wise, Breaking Dawn - Part 2 improved dramatically upon its immediate predecessor as well. While the critical reception to Breaking Dawn - Part 2 was still undeniably mixed, its Rotten Tomatoes score of 49% ranks it among the highest of the entire franchise. Breaking Dawn - Part 2's strong box office response can be explained, alongside its stronger critical response, thanks to it being the finale of the entire Twilight saga.