Move aside Harry Potter, stand down James Bond, because there's a new kid in town. And this one has plenty of bite. The teen vampire flick Twilight made a killing at the US box office at the weekend with a bloodsucking $70.6m (£47m) opening haul.
Catherine Hardwicke's film - an adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's novel about a young woman who falls in love with a hunky vampire in a remote Washington state town - garnered one of the top 30 openings in North American history, an especially impressive feat considering its meagre $35m (£23.3m) budget. Exit polls suggested an overwhelming 75% of the audience were female. The film was also the biggest ever opener for a movie directed by a woman.
Twilight's success left the weekend's only other opener, the Disney animated tale Bolt, in the doghouse. Despite the presence of Miley Cyrus and John Travolta in the voice cast, the story of a canine star of a fictional TV show who believes his powers are real took only $27m (£18m), far below the expected $40m (£26.7m).
Twilight did even better than had been expected, perhaps due to repeat viewings by young fans of Meyer's books. A sequel has already been greenlit and there could eventually be four films based on the novels. The impressive opening was also helped by the fact that the film had little in the way of competition: the new Harry Potter film, the Half-blood Prince, had originally been intended to open this weekend, but has been held back until next summer instead.
Elsewhere, latest James Bond outing Quantum of Solace held up well to split the two new entries. It took second spot with $27.4m (£18.3m) in its second week. This represents a 60% drop compared to last weekend, whereas predecessor Casino Royale was only 25% down in its second week.
The top five was rounded out by the animated adventure Madagascar II: Escape 2 Africa, which took $16m (£10.7m) in its third week, and the comedy Role Models, which banked $7.2m (£4.8m) in its third week.