New Moon at midnight keeping theatres full

Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart star in New Moon. Photo / Supplied

New Moon pre-sales have smashed all previous records, and the film is shaping up to be the biggest money-maker of the year.

Jane Hastings, general manager of Sky City Cinemas, said the group had counted more than 30,000 pre-bookings by yesterday at midday.

That breaks records held by other films with cult followings, such as Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter.

New Moon, the sequel to Twilight, opened on Thursday, and Sky City's 12 cinemas held midnight sessions on Wednesday - starting at one minute past - which were booked out and attracted more than 4000 moviegoers.

All New Moon merchandise is selling fast - 1000 T-shirts were sold at the Sky City midnight session, which was half the company's stock.

Ms Hastings said that Gold Class patrons were keeping the New Moon menus as souvenirs and others were keeping the New Moon popcorn buckets as collectors' items.

"Anything with New Moon on, people want their hands on. It's just huge," she said.

One Sky City customer attended a midnight session and then bought tickets to every session of New Moon the following day, and took the day off work.

Gold Class sessions - which include recliner chairs, meal service and drinks for $30 - are sold out through to Tuesday night.

The average Gold Class patron is over the age of 25.

"This isn't just teenagers, I think that's the key point."

Ms Hastings said she expected sales to beat this year's biggest film, Transformers, which pulled more than $7 million.

The first film in the Twilight series took $2.7 million.

James McIntosh, the national operations manager of Hoyts Cinemas, said the New Moon release had been "phenomenal".

As well as running midnight sessions on Wednesday, Hoyts held a screening at 6am on Thursday so that people could see the film before work.

Sessions at Hoyts' luxury cinemas - called La Premiere - were also selling fast, even during the middle of the day. Mr McIntosh said Thursday exceeded all expectations and was one of the busiest days for Hoyts.

Many of Hoyts' complexes have added extra sessions to cope with demand.

Mr McIntosh said the next film in the series was due to be released during next year's July school holidays.

"That won't be able to come soon enough for many of the fans."

WHAT MAKES TWILIGHT AND NEW MOON SO POPULAR?

Jane Hastings, general manager of Sky City Cinemas
"I think there's several things. The first is that it's a modern-day Romeo and Juliet, because Bella is not the most popular girl in school, she's kind of a normal girl, and she can be herself and still win the adoration of two men with quite different personalities, that treat her like gold. It's what every girl believes love should be like and I don't think there's an age on that."

She adds that from a parent's perspective there is no sex, no swearing and no violence it's a safe story.

James McIntosh, national operations manager of Hoyts Cinemas
"Obviously there's a huge following with the books and it's become a film that for a certain audience they just have to see. There's a real dedication to the story and people just really get immersed in the whole experience."