'New Moon' sets midnight sales record

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 21 (UPI) -- "New Moon," the "Twilight" vampire movie sequel, broke the U.S. record for midnight ticket sales with $26.3 million, a distributor said.

Distributor Summit Entertainment said the horror film's gross sales from Thursday night's grand opening in Canada and the United States set a record and helped put it on pace to set a record for the highest single-day domestic ticket sales, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday.

Several film industry officials said "New Moon" ticket sales for Friday would likely be more than $70 million, the Times said. Such a total would put it ahead of the current single-day domestic ticket sales king, "The Dark Knight" with $67.2 million.

"New Moon," based on a book by author Stephenie Meyer, is also expected to enjoy the highest domestic weekend gross for a 2009 film with a predicted weekend gross of more than $110 million.

The Times said that weekend tally could be increased to more than $150 million once ticket sales from 25 other countries showing it are added.