Box Office Report: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 Crosses $ 700 million, Will Become Biggest Franchise Earner

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 has crossed $ 700 million box office worldwide.

With a total haul of $702,393,000, the finale installment is set to surpass New Moon’s$709 million and become the franchise’s biggest earner worldwide.

“This will be the biggest Twilight movie ever at the box office and the foreign grosses will be the driving force,” Boxoffice.com’s Phil Contrino toldThe Wrap.

He added,

“These franchise films build and build overseas, and then they explode.”

Post Thanksgiving, Summit’s finale installment maintained its ascendancy at the top of the box office tree for the third consecutive week thanks to stunning overseas ticket sales.

After debuting with $141,067,634 in its opening weekend, the last film in the wildly successful vampire franchise went on to break all kinds of records around the world.

In international terms, Breaking Dawn – Part 2 took $447.8 million after just 17 days.

In comparison, Breaking Dawn – Part 1 needed 98 days to power to $430.9 million, while New Moon took $413.2 million after 133 days and Eclipse racked up $398 million international after 114.

Box Office Voodooreports:

“By day 14, the second Twilight feature was on $239.9M while BD 1 had just hit $230M – in comparison, this final film had a gross of $237.1M.”

“On Friday, the finale to the Twilight series added $5.6M … through Saturday and into Sunday, it made another $11.8M, bringing its three day total to $17.4M ($256M overall).”

That’s the best overseas performance of any of the installments, as evidenced by the fact that Part 2 shot past Breaking Dawn – Part 1’s $430 million international haul in the last few days.

Specifically, Breaking Dawn – Part 2’s best box office overseas was in the UK ($ 50 million), then Brazil ($41. 6 million) and Russia (CIS, $41.2 million).

But the broad strokes are these: International box office for Part 2 is $447.8 million, domestic rose to $254.6 million, and its worldwide take swells to $702.4 million.

In other film news, Box Office Voodooreports that Skyfall is now the biggest ever spy movie in history, beating the final box office statistics “for any [films in the] the Mission: Impossible series and every single film in the Bourne series … not to mention being more successful than any other James Bond film.”

Now in its fourth weekend, the 23rd Bond film punches in at $246 million domestic and over $600 million overseas, bringing its worldwide total to a figure north of $800 million.

Lincoln continues to draw acclaim and box office fire. Steven Spielberg’s Civil war historical epic has now grossed $83.6 million. Incidentally, its Spielberg’s biggest domestic release since Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Disney Animation and Paramount’s Rise of the Guardians continues to disappoint — especially during a family holiday — and finished its second weekend with a total of $48,947,000 domestic, $ 57 million overseas, bringing its worldwide total to $105,947,000.

After 12 days, Life of Pi pushes up to a domestic box office of $48,361,000, international stacks up to $60,500,000, bringing its worldwide bank to $108, 861,000. Not bad for a tough sell.

Wreck-It Ralph is still going hard. After earning $7 million this weekend, it’s domestic haul so far is $158,257,000, with international running at $44,000,000. Its worldwide box office now stands at $202,257,000.

Andrew Dominik’s political mob thriller Killing Them Softly starring Brad Pitt, James Gandolfini and Ray Liotta flunked out in its opening weekend, taking $7 million domestically and pulling in $14,917,508 overseas.

With a worldwide tally of just $21,917,508, Exhibitor Relations Box officenotesKilling Them Softly “is one of Brad Pitt’s worst live-action debuts ever in wide release.”

Ben Affleck’s Argo broke past $100 million domestically this weekend. After debuting at $19,458, 109, the Iranian hostage crisis thriller/dark comedy has built massive word of mouth matched by content buzz.

It’s remained on the Top 10 chart for seven weeks and now clears the $100 million milestone. Argo’s worldwide romps in at $157, 005,000.

But the ultimate cineplex crown for the past three weeks belongs to The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2.

Last week Summit’s parent company, Lionsgate issued a press release revealing it was now, the “first studio outside the traditional majors to eclipse the $1 billion mark at the domestic box office in a single calendar year.”

“The milestone is important on several fronts and illustrates the vitality of the franchise on a global scale even after four films,” Lionsgate Motion Picture Group Co-Chairmen Rob Friedman and Patrick Wachsberger said in a joint statement.

Industry watcher, Larry Richman, nutshelled the achievement, observing:

“Bottom line: the story of Breaking Dawn – Part 2 will not be how it does domestically, it will be what a worldwide success it’s been.”