FOR THE WEEK OF NOV. 23, 2009

Devoted Twilighters celebrate New Moon, the movie

Check your newspaper for movie reviews and compare the ratings for different movies with what your own impressions are. How did New Moon rate in your paper? What about 2012? According to the critics, which movie now playing gets the best rating?

Do newspaper movie reviews influence your decision whether to see a movie? What other outlets do you turn to for opinions? Facebook? Twitter? Movie websites? If you've already seen a movie, are you more interested in reading what reviewers have to say about that movie? Write a short paragraph reviewing the last movie you saw.

Big pop culture events sell newspapers (and magazines). Is there a concert coming up in your area? Another movie you're looking forward to? Write a paragraph explaining what you think your newspaper should be preparing to cover in the near future -- some anticipated event that you'd like to read more about.

If you can explain the difference between the Quileute and the Volturi, chances are you're a Twilighter -- or even a Twi-hard. That also means you HAD to be at a theater over the weekend to see "The Twilight Saga: New Moon," the latest film based on the bestselling vampire series by Stephenie Meyer.

The Los Angeles Times said Friday that hundreds of midnight screenings nationwide were sold out weeks before the film's midnight Friday opening.

And by Friday afternoon it was official: New Moon had surpassed The Dark Knight and Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince to claim the highest midnight-release ticket sales ever.

By Monday, New Moon had recorded the third-largest opening weekend in box-office history, surpassed by only The Dark Knight (2008) and Spider-Man 3 (2007).

Who's a Twilighter? A New York Times blog paints this picture: "As expected, the vast majority of advance ticket buyers for "New Moon" are women: 87 percent are female, 35 percent are women under 25 and about 27 percent are women age 25 to 34, according to MovieTickets.com."

What the critics say: The popular movie website Rotten Tomatoes examined 121 New Moon reviews nationally on Friday and ranked 35 as "Fresh (positive)" and 86 as "Rotten." Average rating: 4.7/10. Twilight, the first installment, did slightly better in 2008 with 193 reviews: 95 positive, 98 rotten and a 5.5/10 average rating.

"No New Moon review can really be impartial, as critics and fans either love the Twilight saga, or can't stand it at all. For those who can't stand Twilight books or the first film, New Moon is not for them. Like the original, the sequel is more for the established tween audience, and few outsiders will be tempted to join in."

-- Robert Dougherty
Associated Content

Fanpires tweet the premier: No surprise that New Moon was the top Twitter trend Friday morning. A breathless sampling from the hashtag, #EWNM: "Outrageously AWESOME!!! Unbelievable performance. I'm still shaking in my boots, LOL!!" "The wait was really worth it!!! so close to the book! and Oh my....*happy dance* can't wait 2see it again next week!!"

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