If Tuesday night’s midnight screening receipts are any indication, “Twilight: Eclipse” is going to make boffo cash this weekend. The third installment grossed in excess of $30 million from it’s preview midnight showings, easily surpassing the previous midnight record holder, “Twilight: New Moon” which earned $26.3 million in November 2009. Looks like Twilight fever is not going away anytime soon.

This is the first film from the franchise to receive a summer release date and the largest North American release ever by bowing into 4,408 theaters. An additional 29 theaters will be added this weekend bringing its total to a record 4,437. With teenagers out of school, reviews generally good for the third flick and Fourth of July around the corner, expect “Twilight: Eclipse” to break or come near some box office records this weekend.

Are you going to battle the crowd of Twihards this weekend to catch the film? Or will you wait a few weeks to watch Eclipse?

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This past Saturday a few friends and I decided to catch James Cameron’s new flick “Avatar.”  Simply put, it was one of the most amazing movies I have seen in a long time – and possibly ever.

Here’s the plot from imdb.com for anyone who isn’t familiar with the movie:

When his brother is killed in battle, paraplegic Marine Jake Sully decides to take his place in a mission on the distant world of Pandora. There he learns of greedy corporate figurehead Parker Selfridge’s intentions of driving off the native humanoid “Na’vi” in order to mine for the precious material scattered throughout their rich woodland. In exchange for the spinal surgery that will fix his legs, Jake gathers intel for the cooperating military unit spearheaded by gung-ho Colonel Quaritch, while simultaneously attempting to infiltrate the Na’vi people with the use of an “avatar” identity. While Jake begins to bond with the native tribe and quickly falls in love with the beautiful alien Neytiri, the restless Colonel moves forward with his ruthless extermination tactics, forcing the soldier to take a stand – and fight back in an epic battle for the fate of Pandora.

When I first saw previews for this movie I honestly thought to myself that it was going to be a dud and figured I wouldn’t add it to my “must see in theaters” list, however, the more previews I saw, the more my interest grew and I’m glad (understatement – I’m thrilled) I made the choice to see it and will go back to watch it again at IMAX.  The graphics in this movie are ridiculously amazing.  Nothing was overlooked from the details on the Na’vi’s finger nails to the bark on the Home Tree (the place where the Na’vi live).  No cost was spared in making this film look as life like as possible (rumored to be anywhere between $230-500 million dollars – FIVE HUNDRED MILLION!) and it shows everywhere.  We watched it in 3D and after reports of people getting sick and having to leave the theater from all the movement, I was slightly nervous given that I had been out drinking the Sauce the night before.  But alas, I was fine and seeing the film in 3D only affirmed my thoughts that more movies should be shot in 3D.  Anyway, the graphics themselves are enough to see the movie, but for those of you who aren’t geeks, the story line is actually really, really moving.

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