The Los Angeles Time has an interesting article that puts together a few different interviews done with the various film makers of Breaking Dawn Part 2 where they discuss the ending of the film. STOP READING RIGHT NOW if you don’t want the entire ending spoiled!

Seriously.

Look away.

You have been warned! Don’t complain to me in the comments!

Ok… We reported a while ago that the surprise ending was thought up by Stephenie Meyer and Melissa Rosenberg over dinner one night. Here is what the LA Times states:

And though the conclusion comes initially as a shock to fans, specifically when Carlisle Cullen’s head is first shown severed from his body, it’s all in the book, according to Meyer. “The battle is exactly what Aro saw,” Meyer said during a pre-release interview. “There’s a moment in the novel when he’s staring at Bella and she’s looking back at him and feeling this assessment. And then everything turns. But we can’t see what he’s seeing. But what he’s seeing is, ‘It’s going to be a close fight, a lot of people are going to die and I’m probably going to die. I’m going to die.’ And for him, in my mind, the Volturi win the day. They do. They outnumber you. They would win. But they would be decimated. Their power would be crippled, and he realizes he’s not going to survive it and that’s what changes his mind.” Meyer adds that the only element they changed was adding Alice. “We had Alice get involved so we could visually show it, but it’s all still there.” In case it’s been a while since you’ve read the book, the moment Stephenie is referring to is on page 738 pf the hard back version. Edward explains it in detail, having read Aro’s mind. You can read his explanation on pages 744-745. So it is there, as Stephenie said. By putting it in Alice’s mind and having us see it as Aro’s see’s it makes it more cinematic in nature.

According to the LA Times, Director Bill Condon added his own input onto how the ending could work:

Condon had a different take on how the battle would play out. “I wanted to kill all the major Volturi (which we ultimately did). Stephenie was nervous that if we wiped them out the audience would have been upset that it was merely Alice’s vision,” he said. “She wanted to kill many fewer Volturi, wipe out Emmett and Rosalie and some others on the Cullen side. I didn’t agree.” Compromise clearly ruled the day on the scene that the cast shot for six weeks in a sound stage in Louisiana.

Regardless if you think the ending was good or bad, it has to be said that the ending brought out the biggest reactions from fans! 

Source: LA Times

Catherine Hardwicke once said at a convention that Summit thought only 300 women in Utah were going to go see Twilight. They were obviously wrong. But the studio only spent $37M on Twilight.  Then producer Wyck Godfrey told the fansites on our New Moon set visit that because Twilight “made a little money” they were able to put more money into New Moon. Made a little money?  Twilight made $392.5M worldwide – almost ten times what it cost to make the film!  New Moon cost $50M to make and made $709.7M worldwide.  

Five movies into this massive money-making franchise and Deadline is reporting that Breaking Dawn Part 2 is set to make $275+M globally this weekend.  The film made $72.8M on Friday and $42.8M on Saturday in the US and Canada alone.  Over seas the film has earned  $38.8M.  Friday’s numbers gave the series it’s best opening day, but as Deadline says, every fan in the US and Canada is going to have to go see the film again today (Sunday) if we hope to break the weekend record of $142.8M for the series set by New Moon.  

Hypable posted the series stats for easy comparison.  Keep in mind that Eclipse was a June release and it opened mid-week, rather than on a weekend.   

– Twilight: $69.6 million
– New Moon: $142.8 million
– Eclipse: $175.3 million (Wednesday – Sunday total)
– Breaking Dawn – Part 1: $138.1 million

What do all these numbers mean?  It means that the franchise was a financial success.  While Breaking Dawn Part 2 didn’t break all the records, it’s still one of the top 10 opening days ever. It means that Hollywood should never under estimate the power of the female driven franchise.  Where this will take films in the future has yet to be seen.  But I think we can all agree that every studio in Hollywood is looking for another Twilight Saga.