Top 10 Midnight Openings
1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 - $43.5 million
2. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 - $30.3 million
3. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse - $30.1 million
4. The Twilight Saga: New Moon - $26.3 million
5. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 - $24 million
6. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - $22.2 million
7. The Hunger Games - $19.7 million
8. The Avengers - $18.7 million
9. The Dark Knight - $18.5 million
10. Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith - $16.5 million

*swoons*

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That is an excellent start for The Avengers, the highest midnight for a comic book movie. Yes TDK is far more impressive as it released many years ago (so inflation) & effect of 3D on prices but OW record breaking is in play now. 

Oh and The Hobbit Part 1 is NOT getting anywhere near $2 Billion.

Attendance is going to fall heavily compared to Lord Of The Rings.

I can see it going over a Billion due to sheer brand value...Return Of the King back in 2003 had an astonishing OS gross of around $740 Million so I can totally see 3D + Inflation over 9 years making it huge Overseas...but due to sheer fall in attendance it will probably end up with $800 Million. Domestic it'll do around $350-400 Million making a worldwide gross of $1.2 Billion likely.

But if The Hobbit can match the LOTR films in terms of word of mouth the figure can go higher...and Hobbit PArt 2 can be enormous.

Absolute Max I see Hobbit Part 1 doing is $1.5 Million ($1 Billion OS, $450 Million Domestic) if absolutely EVERYTHING goes on a great scale for it and thus it will top the year. But figures higher than that are simply too hard to imagine.

I want to see your breakdown of that $2 Billion prediction...how much from domestic? how much from overseas?

To meet that figure Domestic will need to be in excess of $600 Million (more than any LOTR films adjusted or even TDK/TPM the other non-cameron megabusters of the modern era) & overseas will have to be around $1.4 Billion...which is lol.

The Hobbit ain't even getting $1b,mark my words..

Missing $1 Billion would be a debacle for The Hobbit given LOTR Trilogy is the 2nd most beloved trilogy of all time & was a box office beast.

The Hobbit itself is a popular enough book too actually. So it's highly unlikely it will miss $1 Billion.

You need to remember one more thing, The Hobbit has very little competition in December & January...it basically has nothing significant opposing it.

The movie sucking could do that though, and I don't know how good it can even be given the material in the first half of the book.

The trailer bored the hell out of me

Still waiting on Friday reports! Avengers' numbers should be massive!

i predict $72.5M for Friday

The problem for the hobbit is: it's the appetizer after the meal. Sure, it will be good, but not as great/epic as the thing you had before.

Yeah heard the same but it nor the new TDKR were shown in front of Avengers in the UK, probably because we got The Avengers a week early & in that week the trailers weren't out.

Might see it if our plan on seeing Titanic 3D for the 2nd time (LOLOL) on Wednesday actually happens