That would topple the previous midnight record, held by ``Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.'' It earned $22.2 million this year. ``The Dark Knight'' from 2008 is third with $18.5 million.
``New Moon'' is the second installment of the popular ``Twilight'' series. It opened at midnight in 3,514 theaters with a per-theater average of $7,476.
Paul Dergarabedian is a box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. He says the midnight start ``portends an opening weekend that could be one of the biggest of the year.''
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