'Eclipse' Takes An Expected Dip on Thursday

JULY 1, 2010 - Twilight Saga: Eclipse raked in US$24.2 million on Thursday July 1 to lead the daily box office, while The Last Airbender blew into second with an estimated US$16.35 million first day gross.

Eclipse scored the second highest-grossing non-opening Thursday ever, behind Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen's $29.1 million, despite plummeting 65 percent from its massive $68.5 million Wednesday opening. Its two-day tally stands at a mighty $92.7 million, trailing New Moon's $115 million though flying much higher than the first Twilight's $57.3 million.

After such a fevered opening day, an extreme drop-off was to be expected for Eclipse. After all, New Moon's second day was a Saturday, and it still fell 42 percent. Eclipse's decline, though, was the steepest on record coming off of a Wednesday opening. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which previously held the Wednesday opening record with $62 million, fell 53 percent at the same point.

Playing on approximately 4,600 screens at 3,169 locations or considerably less than Eclipse's estimated 8,200 screens at 4,416 locations, The Last Airbender notched the fifth highest-grossing Thursday opening of all time, though it was far behind fourth place Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull's US$25 million and was a fraction of the last two Star Wars movies.

Last Airbender's Thursday included around US$3 million from its midnight launch, which was the largest midnight start of the summer for a non-sequel. - Report by Boxofficemojo.