Visible Measures Blog

The final installment of the Twilight series is finally upon us: Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 releases today nationwide. It's been quite a journey for the franchise -- the five films combined have grossed $2.5 billion at the box office worldwide, with each film grossing more than its predecessor. The series has also launched the careers of the Twilight superstars, spawned a worldwide phenomenon, and added a new term to pop culture: Twihard.

In honor of the final installment of the franchise, we wanted to look at how many views each film had generated by the time of their relative releases. We ranked the results by True Reach viewership, combining all of the film's associated video content online, from trailers, to copies of trailers, to spoofs, to Twihard film reviews, actor interviews, and more. What we found may surprise you.

Who wins? New Moon, the second installment of the series, generated the most views by its release, with more than 224 million video views. The last Twilight film, Breaking Dawn - Part 2, is the runner-up, with 198 million views. Next comes the third film, Eclipse, followed by Breaking Dawn Part 1. The original Twilight film comes in last place with 112 million views by its release. 

In our research, we discovered another interesting fact -- out of the Top 10 film trailers in online video ever, every Twilight film has a spot in that top 10. That means that Twilight holds 5 out of the Top 10 film trailers. But will these big numbers in online video translate to big numbers at the box office? We'll have to wait and see.

Will you watch Breaking Dawn - Part 2 this weekend? Let us know in the comments section below!