$71 MILLION OPENING DAY!

$26 MILLION MIDNIGHT SHOWINGS!

Twi-hards now have two box office records to call their own: Best Midnight Opening and Best Single Day Opening. The highly anticipated sequel to "Twilight" sucked $26.3 million from movie-goes at 3,514 midnight screenings according to distributor Summit Entertainment, and scored an estimated $71 million on Friday at 4,024 sites.

"New Moon" topped last summer's "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" which previously held the midnight record grossing $22 million, while "The Dark Knight's" single day record gross was $67 million.

Exactly one year ago, it took "Twilight" the entire weekend to gross $69 million..."New Moon" surpassed that total in 24 hours. It's safe to say that Summit Entertainment successfully reached the male demographic this time around as they have expanded their fan base exponentially. Expand the brand...that's the name of the game in sequel-ville.

Estimates for the weekend have the sequel zooming well past $100 million, and now "New Moon" may just have a chance to take down Captain Codpiece. If this kind of freakish momentum keeps up, "The Dark Knight's" 3-day record of $158 million may be in jeopardy. 

Holy box office blood-suckers, Batman!