When you factor in the original film’s $383.8 million in worldwide grosses with the $700 million or more in worldwide grosses that “New Moon” could eventually roll up, Summit Entertainment will soon find itself having the biggest true independent film franchise in recent history.

Indie studios have rarely, if ever, had the cushion of such a cozy franchise piggy bank. So when an indie studio has a bad year, it’s really a bad year. The high ledge can look awfully tempting. It’s why in the Miramax days, the Weinstein brothers created the genre-based Dimension division, which gave Bob Weinstein the opportunity to develop such cash cows as the “Scary Movie” franchise, the “Scream” series and the “Spy Kids” saga. Ditto for Lionsgate with its long-running “Saw” horror showcase. However, even though the six “Saw” movies have racked up an impressive $711.8 million in worldwide grosses, it’s likely that Summit, with just the first two installments in its ”Twilight” series, will end up leaving “Saw” in its wake.  It doesn’t mean that Summit’s future is secure. The studio eventually will have to prove that it’s more than a one-trick pony. But for now, Summit has some pretty serious bragging rights, proving that being an indie studio no longer means you have to be a second-class power, even when it comes to playing with the big boys in the franchise game.

And there you have it, Twilight  is truly a phenomenon.  These numbers are astronomical.  Remember when Titanic came out?  All the fuss over that movie, I was beyond guilty and obsessed.  I saw Titanic13 times(ok I’m mad I just revealed that to the world) and The Twilight Saga will surpass that easily, and I feel that long after all of this has died down…they’ll still be talking about Twilight & we the loyal fans for decades to come. 

(Source L.A. Times, Thanks Diana!)

You asked and they listened! Summit Entertainment will show “Twilight” on the big screen for one night only.

“Responding to the fans of THE TWILIGHT SAGA, Summit Entertainment announced today that it will re-release TWILIGHT, the first film in the franchise, at select theatres nationwide on November 19th, a day before the highly anticipated release of the movie’s sequel, THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON.  Despite the first film already being on DVD, fans across the nation have been calling out to see the film once again on the big screen and the studio is honoring their request.

Summit is working with exhibitors to screen TWILIGHT one night only with screenings in the evening just before THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON arrives in theatres.  Select theatres will offer tickets at a reduced price.”

I wonder which “select” theaters will be showing the movie, probably not in my area, that would be sweet though!

[Source]

Summit Entertainment created a twitter account as of today. Right now only New Moon director Chris Weitz has been tweeting. He stated that this is the official New Moon twitter account, however it is listed under Summit Entertainment.

Chris shared an awesome pic of himself at the sound mixing stage. As you can see there is a huge screen with a picture of Bella Swan. It appears to be the scene in New Moon when she returns to the meadow (trying to ’see’ the visions of Edward again) and she is closing her eyes trying to remember being there with him (in Twilight).

Here are some of the other tweets that Chris has shared with us so far today. Including updated information on New Moon’s running time -

You can follow Summit Entertainment’s Official New Moon Twitter (aka Chris Weitz) here!

When we brought you news of the official New Moon website, it was still a work in progress. One of the big sections, “The World of Twilight”, was not yet available.

Starting today, though, you can now explore that part of the official website. Tantalizing details include a menu item for Breaking Dawn that claims it is “Coming Soon”, and there are also widgets, wallpapers, characters bios and more.

Visit World of Twilight now!

[thanks, Eternity_with_Edward, only_ever_true_love!]

Summit has updated the official Twilight Saga Website to reflect New Moon. The site is pretty sparse right now, but you can now download wallpapers, send e-cards or grab the official New Moon widget.

Check out the new site at TwilightTheMovie.com.

[thanks, Candy!]

Casey Ray found two scripts, one for the vampire sequel “New Moon” and one for a different movie titled “Memoirs.” She decided to return them to the studio making the films. In return, she was invited to attend the movies’ premieres, her lawyer said.

Watkins helped her return them to Los Angeles-based Summit Entertainment LLC, the studio making the movies. He said the studio invited Ray to premieres for the two films, and will certify the scripts as authentic after the movies are released.

A local news source, WLTX, reports that the scripts were left at the hotel by New Moon star Anna Kendrick–

The scripts had been left and ended up in a dumpster outside the Chase Park Plaza Hotel in St. Louis by actress Anna Kendrick, who had been in St. Louis to shoot the George Clooney film, Up in the Air, according to Ray’s attorney, Albert S. Watkins.

Just goes to show, doing the right thing can pay off.

Woman Finds New Moon Script in the Trash

[via TwiCrack, thanks Josh!]

Summit has announced the winner of the contest to take part in the filming of New Moon. The winner is–guess what, a TwiGuy–Ky Wildermuth, and the judges have issued a special thank you to all the entries.

You can view the winning entry as well as some finalists at the film’s official website.

Finalists included Alexandra, Becky, Colby, Kristina, Leah, Melissa, Natalie, Rachel, and Tarren. Congrats to the winner and good job to everyone that entered–the videos that are up are all great!

A source tells EW that those discussions actually occurred before Summit took the $37 million Twilight and turned it into a $340 million worldwide franchise. Now that they’ve got a real hit on their hands, Summit is going it alone for the time being, with the Dakota Fanning-starrer Push releasing on Friday, and New Moon, the studio’s Twilight sequel, scheduled for a Nov. 20 bow.

However, with the economic conditions being as they are, everyone in Hollywood is talking about ways to enhance their business strategically while simultaneously reducing overhead, so it’s certainly not out of the question that we’ll see some kind of changes taking place at various studios in coming months. We’ll just have to wait and see how it all shakes out.  

‘Twilight’ studio Summit unlikely to merge with Lionsgate

I don’t even know what to say about this–so I’m just going to press Command-V and hope for the best:

“It could mean, in short, that New Moon will be a little bit bloodier than anticipated. Or certainly the Twlight film after that. Is there any filmmaking/distribution outfit with a more pronounced reputation for being deeply in love with arterial gushings? That’s Lionsgate in a nutshell.”

So declares Jeff Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere, in response to Sharon Waxman’s report (for which “executives at Lionsgate and Summit declined to comment”) that Lionsgate (home of the Saw, Hostel and Tyler Perry franchises) may be buying Summit Entertainment, including the company’s library and slate, which includes teenage necrophilia phenom franchise Twilight.

Of course, the author does note that Lionsgate seems eager to change its image–and perhaps the purchase of Summit is a step in this direction:

But of course, Wells’ “nutshell” definition of Lionsgate is out of date. It’s an open secret that Lionsgate is so desperate to distance itself from its bloody past that the distributor has spent the past year engineering the failure of its remaining genre stock — dumping Midnight Meat Train in rural dollar theaters; taking the ultra-cinematic The Burrowers off its theatrical release schedule entirely; killing Cabin Fever as a theatrical franchise by releasing its Ti West-directed sequel straight to DVD. If anything, in Lionsgate’s hands, the Twilight sequels are likely to go even more tame.

TWILIGHT Sequels to go Torture Porn?