‘The Twilight Saga: Eclipse’ Fights Off ‘The Last Airbender’ In The Saturday Box Office Report
1. “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” ($28.6 million)
2. “The Last Airbender” ($16 million)
What better way to kick off a Fourth of July weekend than a showdown between vampires, werewolves and super-powered martial artists? The holiday weekend kicked off in earnest on Friday as “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” easily took first place, with “The Last Airbender” following closely behind.
Bella Swan’s romantic quarrel with Edward Cullen and Jacob Black remains a reliable magnet for box office business, as the film earned $28.6 million on Friday. That’s in addition to the $24.2 million it won on Thursday, resulting in a domestic cumulative total of $121.3 million since premiering on Wednesday. Already, “Eclipse” has shattered box office records for greatest ever midnight opening and best Wednesday debut of all time. At its current pace, “Eclipse” could come close to $200 million total by the end of the holiday weekend.
Even though the supernatural shenanigans in Forks, Washington are getting the most play at the box office, M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Last Airbender” is holding up quite nicely as well with $16 million on Friday. Since debuting on Thursday, “Airbender” has earned a total of $32.3 million — not a bad result considering the critical beating this film is taking with an eight percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
‘The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn’ won’t come to Portland, set to film in B.C. & Louisiana
Portland, Oregon-area Twilight Saga fans hoping production on the fourth and fifth movies in the franchise would return to the region will be disappointed to learn that it’s probably not going to happen.
Though there has been no official announcement from Summit Entertainment about where “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn” will be filmed, producer Wyck Godfrey says it’s not Portland.
As reported by the Twilight Examiner, Godfrey told Collider.com that the movie would be filmed in Vancouver, B.C. (where “New Moon” and “Eclipse” were both filmed in 2009) and Louisiana, citing the state’s tax credits.
Breaking Dawn Screenwriter: Final Films Will Be “Way Hot!”
Now that Eclipse is off and dominating, we don’t think it’s too soon to start chatting about the next installment in the Twilight franchise: Breaking Dawn.
But let’s get to the good stuff shall we? Like what movie rating Melissa Rosenberg foresees for Breaking Dawn, which will be her last Twilight screenplay:
“It will be sexier,” Melissa recently told us, noting she’s aware of fans’ petitions to make the two flicks R-rated thanks to a certain feathers flying Edward and Bella sex scene.
“I think we can get awfully sexy with a PG-13,” Rosenberg said nodding her head. “I’m not worried about the rating. I know a lot of fans are like, ‘We have to go R to do it justice,’ but I don’t think so. I think it’s going to be pretty hot. Way hot!”
Starlog’s “THE LAST AIRBENDER” set visit: Jackson
To TWILIGHT fans, he’s Jasper Hale. To LAST AIRBENDER viewers, though, he’s Sokka, the Water Tribe member who goes on a journey with his sister Katara (Nicola Peltz) to help the titular avatar.
STARLOG: How did you get this part?
RATHBONE: Night just approached me, and they were like, “You’re going to audition for this movie called THE LAST AIRBENDER.” I said, “That sounds familiar,” and they told me it was based on a show, and I replied, “Nice, I know that one.” I originally auditioned for Zuko, waited six months, didn’t hear anything, figured I didn’t get it, and then I got a call back asking to audition for Sokka. I was surprised. I like doing comedy as well, and to have that kind of range with this character—he grows a lot throughout the series—is great.
STARLOG: What was your first day of shooting like?
RATHBONE: I think the first day in Greenland we shot the opening, which is fantastic, because most of the time you have to start in the middle. We went to Greenland for two weeks and we shot a lot of the beginning of the film up there. It was cold, and it was nice to get back to warmer weather, because we were wet most of the time, and it was freezing. They would dump water down on me, and by the time the take was done, the water was already frozen on my head.
STARLOG: Now on to that little-known franchise you’re a part of… Even though Stephenie Meyer’s books were bestsellers at the time you shot the first TWILIGHT, the films weren’t the phenomena that they are today.
RATHBONE: [The first TWILIGHT] was kind of like a bigger budget indie film; it felt like an indie film. There was a very fun vibe on set. It was a little stressful because as we were filming the press and fans got more into it, but it was amazing. We realized, “Oh wow, this is going to be something else.” I mean, it wasn’t coming out for six months, and people already wanted to buy tickets! So that was an experience in and of itself. I wasn’t really prepared for it, but I am thankful for it. [I’ve done plays where] everybody on stage outnumbers everyone in the audience, so it’s really nice to have an audience.
More of this interview here
Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart Top IMDB Starmeter Rankings
www.usanewsweek.com: The Twilight saga stars are definitely on a roll. IMDB’s star meter has all the three actors playing the main characters in the saga in the top 10. The beauty, Stewart, is no.1 while the vampire Robert is no.2 and the beast, Lautner came in at the seventh spot.
The release of the third movie in the Twilight saga called ‘Eclipse’ pushed Pattinson’s and Kristen’s rankings to the top. During the months leading up to “Eclipse”, Pattinson’s and Stewart’s IMDB STARmeter rankings had hovered around #6 and #7, with wide spreads separating Pattinson and Stewart from all other Twilight Saga stars. One interesting point to note is the fact that the stars’ IMDB Stars seem perfectly aligned, with history showing them staying back to back in the rankings (though sometimes changing positions) and moving in the same direction at the same time. This will definitely give some ammunition to the camp believing that the stars are a couple and destiny is sending signals.
More here
The good thing is that Eclipse and the Last Airbender are at the top. They got good competition like Toy Story 3 that comes back with a new installment after 10 years or so. The three of have their own loyal fans following them. I, myself saw The Last Airbender before reading the twilight books, so they both have my support 🙂 It was great that Jackson got the part of Sokka instead of Zuko, I like Zuko but seeing Jackson change from his usual characters was fun.
Have you seen Eclipse or The Last Airbender yet? Any favorite scene? What do you think of Jackson as Sokka?
What do you think of Breaking Dawn changing filming location? Do you think Breaking Dawn can be sexy and stay PG 13?
