This should not come as a surprise to anyone (and if it does: Where have you been? Your loved ones have been tirelessly searching for your remains and yet here you are, alive and not knowing anything about the sparkly vampire story). Breaking Dawn - Part 2, the highly anticipated/highly tiresome final chapter of the Twilight series hit theaters this past weekend, dominating the worldwide box office with a $340.9 million opening. If that number sounds obscene, it's because it is obscene.
Here's the break(ing)down: In the US, Breaking Dawn 2 earned $141.3 million (just short of the $142.8 million opening of New Moon, but more than Breaking Dawn 1, which grossed $138.1 million last year); internationally, the film pulled in a whopping $199.6 million from 61 markets, the franchise's best global opening.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Breaking Dawn 2 also boasted the highest number of male ticketholders than any of the other films, a curious statistic that could be explained by the probable swarm of resentful boyfriends forced to endure the "end of an era" with their significant other. It really is the end of an era if you consider that 50% of the audience was 25 years and older.
Elsewhere at the box office, David O. Russell's Silver Linings Playbook and Joe Wright's period drama Anna Karenina both opened the same weekend as Breaking Dawn 2. The former pulled in a respectable $458, 430 from a limited release (16 theaters in select cities); the latter grossed $315,395 in 16 theaters as well (though the film has already earned $10.8 million overseas).