When Bella met Edward
Supernatural love story ‘Twilight’ turns 10
“Twilight” was more than a teen romance between a human and a vampire.
Based on Stephenie Meyer’s young-adult novel and starring a then-unknown cast, the supernatural love story roared to a stunning $70 million weekend box-office debut when it swooped into theaters on Nov. 21, 2008. For the first time, Hollywood saw that a burgeoning film franchise led by a young woman could pull in female moviegoers.
Told through the eyes of highschooler Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) whose beau is a vampire (Robert Pattinson), “Twilight” would go on to anchor four additional blockbusters and rake in $3.4 billion in worldwide box office.
“There had been film successes with women at the story’s heart, but the industry never built on these successes. ‘Twilight’ brought a female-voiced franchise into the international sphere,” said Melissa Silverstein, founder and publisher of the Women and Hollywood website, which advocates for gender parity across the entertainment industry. “Ten years later, we’re seeing that women can lead these. ‘Twilight’ was the beginning of it.”
The film’s success, which will be celebrated with a rerelease in theaters Sunday and Tuesday (including Marcus Theatres’ Majestic, Menomonee Falls, Ridge and South Shore cinemas), caught many by surprise.
But not Summit Entertainment, which had snapped up the rights to Meyer’s books, or director Catherine Hardwicke, who pounced on the project after falling for the hot young love story.
“Stephenie Meyer did such a fantastic job capturing what it feels like to be madly, crazy stupid in love — the biggest crush you could have,” Hardwicke said. “Capturing that feeling on a movie screen was an insane challenge for a filmmaker.”
With only a $37 million production budget, Hardwicke couldn’t afford to fly British actor Pattinson (Cedric Diggory in “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”) to Los Angeles for an audition to test his chemistry
Told through the eyes of high-schooler Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) whose beau is a vampire (Robert Pattinson), “Twilight” would go on to anchor four additional blockbusters and rake in $3.4 billion in worldwide box office.
with Stewart. Pattinson, who was so strapped at the time that he was sleeping on his agent’s couch, had to pay his own way.
“We didn’t have that kind of money. We had no idea this was going to be a blockbuster,” Hardwicke said.
Pattinson sizzled in the auditions with Stewart, who told Hardwicke afterward, “It has to be Rob.” (The two would become an internationally famed couple in real life.)
Hardwicke could see the fan love about to explode. She recalls watching Meyer reading passages from her then-upcoming fourth book, “Breaking Dawn,” earlier in the year.
“She said the word ‘Edward’ and 1,000 fans in this bookstore courtyard started screaming,” Hardwicke said. “I thought: ‘Wow, they are screaming over a name. Wait till they see the amazing guy we are going to have play Edward.’ ”
With Meyer supporting the project, interacting with her fans online and releasing “Breaking Dawn” that August, “a perfect storm” built up around the film. Comic-Con 2008 rocked with the previously unseen sight of young female fans screaming at the “Twilight” panel.
Hardwicke was blown away to see thousands of fans waiting outside the Hollywood premiere.
“I had a camera to my face filming and people still recognized me, they were yelling ‘Catherine!’ ” Hardwicke said. “I’m not even an actor.”
After the success of the first movie, budgets were bolstered to ensure international domination (and even male fan support): “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” took in $709 million worldwide against a $50 million budget in 2009.
A string of female-led franchises followed, based on young-adult books such as “The Hunger Games” and “Divergent.”
Their success also helped paved the way for comic-book series such as “Wonder Woman” and the upcoming “Captain Marvel” (in theaters March 8, 2019), said Matt Atchity, general manager of movie listings service Moviefone.
“That’s the long shadow ‘Twilight’ casts after 10 years. It’s this series that got the younger female demographic going to movies,” he said. “Producers aren’t ignoring them anymore.”