It seems that Twilight: Eclipse isn’t only smashing records in the US but also on our own fair isle too! Last week, we reported that the new movie to star Robert Pattinson, Tatlor Lautner and Kristen Stewart had broken the record for the US midnight opening. Today, Vue cinemas have reported that the same occurred at their midnight showings here in the UK taking the title away from New Moon, which preceeds Eclipse.
This morning, they tweeted the good news and have told me that over the weekend during their exclusive Twilight triple bill showing Twilight, New Moon and Eclipse back to back, they had indeed broken the record with over 40 000 Twilight Saga fans watching the movie at the same time.
Fans of the Twilight films, or “Twi-hards” as fans like to be known, helped Vue smash all records with the highest attendance EVER for a midnight screening, with over 40,000 fans seeing The Twilight Saga: Eclipse for the first time, delivering a massive +27% increase on attendance to similar midnight previews for the previous instalment, The Twilight Saga: New Moon last year
Whether you’re a fan of the vampire / werewolf franchise or not, this is great news for UK cinema. Even in the midst of a worldwide recession, Hollywood is still pulling audiences across the world into local cinemas across the world and no less in the UK.
Mark de Quervain, Sales and Marketing Director for Vue cinemas summed it up nicely by saying:
“It’s great news for UK cinema and shows that cinema-going right across the UK is still as popular as ever. Our customers know that the cinema is still terrific value for money for two or three hours of entertainment and escape – or in the case of the special Twilight screenings, about 6 and half hours of thrill and suspense!”
Vue have given me access to this video which shows some of the Twihards at Vue Westfield, the new flagship cinema in the new shopping center which shows just some of the fans of the Twilight movies watching the movie and what they thought. It really is a phenomenon! So I guess when Breaking Dawn comes out, we’ll have a record? Or will Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I smash it to pieces? Guess we’ll have to wait and find out!
