‘Twilight’ Director Was Told $29 Million Is ‘Probably All This Movie Can Ever Make’ at the Box Office — It Then Made $35 Million on Opening Day
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With “Twilight” celebrating its 15th anniversary this month, director Catherine Hardwicke joined the “Happy Sad Confused” spinoff podcast “Watchalong” to remember all the highs and lows that went into getting the vampire romance made. One of her more interesting revelations revolves around how impossible it was to predict the film’s box office. No one was expecting a phenomenon, and Hardwicke was even told her film would probably never crack the $30 million mark.
“Every studio in town turned this down,” Hardwicke said. “MTV and Paramount, they put it in turnaround. Everyone said we weren’t making this. Even when I started on the job, they said, ‘You know, “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” was a popular book for girls. It made $29 million. That’s probably all this movie can ever make.’ Of course our opening weekend was $69 million and we made $400 million overall. Nobody could predict it!”
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Even when tracking for the film’s opening weekend started to skyrocket, the studio was still not anticipating a box office phenomenon. As Hardwicke remembered, “Up to the day before opening weekend, like that Wednesday or Thursday before, they said, ‘If we make $30 [million] or something we’ll be ecstatic.”
“Twilight” earned $7 million from midnight ticket sales alone on its way to a $35 million opening day. The film generated $69 million over its opening weekend and would go on to earn $192 million domestically and $408 million worldwide. A new blockbuster franchise had been born, and the 2009 sequel, “New Moon,” was even bigger with a $72.7 million opening day (a record at the time for biggest opening day in domestic box office history). Through five films, the “Twilight” franchise grossed $3.3 billion worldwide.
Hardwicke also revealed on the podcast that the studio questioned if Robert Pattinson had good enough looks to play the vampire Edward Cullen.
“They called me back and go, ‘Do you think you can make this guy look good?’” she recalled. “I said, ‘Yeah, I do. Did you see his cheekbones? We’re doing a makeover on the hair and everything and he’s going to start working out and he’s going to be gorgeous.’ But they didn’t believe it at first. He like walked over there with a stained shirt or something. It was Rob.”
Watch Hardwicke’s full appearance on the “Watchalong” podcast in the video below.
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