‘Eclipse’ opens ahead of ‘New Moon’ in major foreign countries

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Foreshadowing a potentially huge overseas box-office performance for the latest installment in the fan favorite vampire romance series, ‘The Twilight Saga: Eclipse’ had a bigger opening day Thursday than its predecessor ‘New Moon’ had last November in 13 major and mid-sized foreign markets.

The most successful opening was in Russia, where ‘Eclipse’ sold $3.9 million worth of tickets on its first day. Other strong showings for the third ‘Twilight’ movie included Italy, where it collected $3.2 million, Brazil with $2.4 million, and Spain with $2 million.

In Belgium, ‘Eclipse’ beat ‘Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix’ to record the biggest opening day of all time with $735,000.

‘Eclipse’ grossed an estimated $16.2 million in total from 21 international markets on its first day, according to distributor Summit Entertainment. By this weekend, it will be playing in a total of 42 foreign countries.

‘New Moon’ grossed a total of $413 million overseas, $117 million more than in the U.S. and Canada.

‘Eclipse’ collected $68.5 million domestically on its first day.

-- Ben Fritz