Fangirl Power

Twilighters at the Mall of America appearance of the cast of Twilight
The numbers are in for the opening weekend box office for Twilight. The film blew away the competition and made nearly $70 million. What does this mean? It means that Catherine Hardwicke has the record for the highest opening weekend gross for a female director ever, as the previous record was only $41 million for Mimi Leder's Deep Impact a decade ago.

The world truly tilted on its axis on Friday, and the studios are taking note. A $70 million dollar weekend outside of summer is usually reserved for fanboy fare or family films like Harry Potter. The audience for Twilight was 75% female, and 55% were 25 or under. But that also means that 45% were over 25 (like me!)

"This is a game-changer. This is an industry-changing performance," Exhibitor Relations analyst Jeff Bock said today. "With the success of Sex and the City, and Mamma Mia!, we've awoken a sleeping giant at the box office."

We have the power. The buying power, that is. Twilight has now dethroned Hugh Jackman's Van Helsing as the highest opener for a vampire pic. Twilight is in fact, one of the top opening movies of all time. If Harry Potter had kept its November release date, we would not likely have seen these numbers, but move it did freeing up theater space.

Going into the weekend, Twilight was expected to make, at best, a big $60 million. Where did the extra $10 million come from? Word of mouth, said Summit Entertainment distribution president Richie Fay, who talked of teen girls catching the Friday midnight screenings, and then deciding they had to see the movie again—and again. "It turned out they really liked the movie," Fay said.

The Chicago Sun-Times Bill Zwecker reports on the surety of sequels after this weekend's success:

So, not only have deals been cut for a not-unexpected second ''Twilight'' film (based on Meyer's New Moon book), but I've learned a third film is also virtually a done deal, based on Meyer's Eclipse novel -- though that won't be confirmed for some time. Also, sources say stars Robert Pattinson, 22, and Kristin Stewart, 18, will get huge salary boosts from the $2 million each earned for "Twilight" -- reportedly $10 million more, per film, plus a nice percentage of the future movies' box-office take.

It's not a done deal that Catherine Hardwicke will direct the sequels, but she is in discussion with the producers.

Hardwicke, whose previous films include "Thirteen" and "Lords of Dogtown," also said she was thrilled about the prospect that the success of "Twilight" will inspire other women and young girls to pursue a career in filmmaking. "We've been having a lot of events, talking to a lot of fans, and so many kids of course are madly in love with Robert but tons of kids of every kind (and) girls are coming up to me and saying `I want to direct now, I'm writing a screenplay now, you're my inspiration.' I think it's great that people are getting excited."

I don't know why this is a surprise, but the buying power of girls and women has finally been acknowledged:

"Teen girls rule the earth," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers. "If you look back at the `Hannah Montana' movie, how well that did, and now this movie, the teen girl audience will never be ignored again or underestimated. It was always teen boys who were the coveted ones, but someone finally caught on to the idea that girls love movies, too, and if you create something that they're into, that they're passionate about, they will come out in big numbers and drive the box office."

We are women. Hear us roar! (or squeal, as the case may be...)