Sunday Flickers: Twilight: New Moon's Astounding Box Office Take; Funny Book Parody "Nightlight"

The Twilight Saga: New Moon isn't merely making history as the second worst-reviewed major movie of 2009, after the truly rotten Transformers sequel.

It's breaking records at the box-office, too.

With a North American take of $140.7 million, it will also go down as the film with the third biggest opening weekend of all time, following two vastly superior movies - The Dark Knight ($158.4 million, 2008) and Spider-Man 3 ($151.1 million, 2007).

Nothing like the appeal of protagonists with super powers, huh?

Worldwide, the young-vampires-in-love flick did big numbers, too, with $248.8 million in 25 foreign countries. Translation: Seventh-biggest screen launch of all time.

New Moon is expected to eventually rack up about $500 million at the box office, outpacing the $385 million earned so far by the first Twilight (2008), according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.

What this all means: No end in sight for Twilight mania.

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Here's hoping that fans and foes of the squeaky-clean series will pick up on "Nightlight: A Parody," a book written by the staff of the Harvard Lampoon.

The story, set in rainy Switchblade, Oregon, centers on the uh, dreamy vampire Edwart Mullen, a computer nerd who suffers from nosebleeds. Clumsy teen girl Belle Goose, deluded that every boy and man she meets pines for her, is in love with Edwart.

Back-jacket copy: "About three things I was absolutely certain. First, Edwart wsa most likely my soul mate, maybe." Check out Susan Carpenter's review in the L.A. Times.

Now it's back to work on my five-book series charting the adventures of a young girl and her love for two dreamy mummy boys. If only those bloody bandages didn't keep getting between my heroine and her amours. Please don't steal my idea.