"The Twilight Saga: New Moon" Debutes in US and Canada on Friday

Hollywood watchers think vampire romance "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" could bring about $100 million when it debuts this weekend.

Photo: "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" Debutes in US and Canada on Friday

"New Moon," which debuts in the United States and Canada on Friday, is independent studio Summit Entertainment's sequel to last year's "Twilight," which surpassed expectations by making $69.6 million in its first weekend.

Exactly one year later, no one will be surprised if "New Moon" has a blockbuster opening in domestic markets, but the question is just how big it will be.

The film follows the romance between high school student Bella Swan and vampire Edward Cullen, and her friendship with Jacob Black, a werewolf. It has a built-in audience from the first movie and from millions of readers of the "Twilight" books by Stephenie Meyer on which the movies are based.

Jeff Bock, box office analyst with tracking firm Exhibitor Relations Co Inc, also believes the film could make nearly $100 million, and a source close to Summit said it could rake in nearly $85 million, ABC News reports.

It was also reported, a marginal improvement on last year's "Twilight," "New Moon" is a bit like being locked in a room for two hours with a very moody teenager.

The people most likely to appreciate the experience are other moody teens ... and moms who remember what it was like to be a moody teen.

In the hands of new director Chris Weitz, "Moon" is slicker than the original film. Clearly there was a bit more budget - the vampire Edward's sparkly skin actually looks cool instead of cheesy this time around, and the film concludes with a sequence in a beautiful Italian country town.

The dilemma of our heroine Bella (Kristen Stewart) has all the punch of a middling made-for-TV movie, MiamiHerald.com reports.

News agencies also report, the success of the second film adaptation of author Stephenie Meyer's wildly popular supernatural romance series, "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" has less to do with vampires and werewolves than with zombies.

Not the flesh-eating ones but the ones who have been counting down the hours and minutes to the release of the film. The slack-jawed legions who will stagger into theaters this weekend, clutching their pre-ordered tickets in their outstretched hands, regardless of what they hear about the movie. I could say, for instance, that the movie is little more than your standard love triangle between a handsome, if slightly priggish bloodsucker, a hot-blooded lycanthrope and the mortal girl who is caught between them. And that would be true, if a less than accurate assessment of the film's many visceral pleasures. And it would do nothing to dissuade a diehard fan from going to the movie, The Washington Post reports.