Make that ‘New Moon’ worldwide opening $274.9 million ... and counting

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Summit Entertainment’s estimates of how many filmgoers outside North America saw ‘The Twilight Saga: New Moon’ was low. Way low.

As more exact information continues to roll in from overseas markets, the independent studio updated its estimate of ticket sales in the 24 countries where its blockbuster vampire movie played over the weekend.

Its new total, $132.1 million, is a full $14 million, or 12%, higher than its estimate Sunday morning of $118.1 million. Combined with the newly updated domestic total of $142.8 million, $2.1 million higher than Summit’s Sunday morning estimate, it now turns out that ‘New Moon’ opened to $274.9 million, the sixth highest worldwide bow of all time.

Because Summit doesn’t have its own foreign distribution operation, it works with a variety of distributors in different countries and thus international grosses are coming in much slower than at major studios. Further updates are yet to come, just in case anyone is worried that ‘New Moon’ didn’t make enough money this weekend.

--Ben Fritz