Exactly seventeen years ago today, the Mann Village Theatre in Westwood was transformed into a sea of screaming teenagers, black carpets, and glittering vampire fangs as Summit Entertainment premiered Twilight, the film adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s bestselling young-adult novel. Directed by Catherine Hardwicke and starring then-little-known actors Kristen Stewart as the awkward mortal Bella Swan and Robert Pattinson as the brooding, century-old vampire Edward Cullen, the movie would go on to gross nearly $400 million worldwide on a modest $37 million budget and launch one of the biggest pop-culture phenomena of the 21st century.
You can find Twilight on Amazon HERE.
The origins of Twilight trace back to a dream. In June 2003, Arizona housewife and mother of three Stephenie Meyer woke up from a vivid dream about a sparkling vampire and a human girl talking in a meadow. She began writing what would become the 500-page manuscript for Twilight that same day, finishing it just three months later. With no prior publishing experience, Meyer signed with agent Jodi Reamer, and Little, Brown and Company acquired the book in a three-book deal for $750,000—an almost unheard-of advance for a debut author at the time. When Twilight hit shelves in October 2005, it debuted at #5 on the New York Times Best Seller list and never really left. By 2008, the series had sold over 25 million copies worldwide and spawned three sequels: New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn.
Summit Entertainment, a small independent studio still best known for gritty fare like Memento and American Pie, snapped up the film rights for $1 million in 2007. Paramount had previously owned the rights but let them lapse after an early script veered too far from the source material. Catherine Hardwicke, fresh off the critical success of Thirteen and Lords of Dogtown, was hired to direct, insisting on a raw, indie feel that mirrored Bella’s rainy Pacific Northwest existence. Kristen Stewart, only 17 during filming, was cast after Hardwicke saw her in Into the Wild. Robert Pattinson, a 21-year-old British actor still best known for dying early in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, famously auditioned in Hardwicke’s own bedroom, performing the iconic meadow scene on her bed with Stewart. The chemistry was instant—and the rest is history.
The Los Angeles premiere on November 17, 2008, was pure pandemonium. Thousands of fans camped out for days, many clutching homemade “Team Edward” and “Team Jacob” signs (even though Taylor Lautner’s Jacob Black barely appears in the first film). Stewart arrived in a daring red Rock & Republic mini-dress, while Pattinson, hair artfully tousled and wearing a sleek black suit, was mobbed the moment he stepped onto the carpet. Meyer herself, visibly emotional, told reporters, “I never imagined this many people would care about my little story.”
Critics were mixed—Twilight holds a 49% on Rotten Tomatoes, often mocked for its melodramatic dialogue and blue-tinted cinematography—but audiences didn’t care. The film opened wide four days later on November 21 and earned $69.6 million in its first weekend, at the time the biggest opening ever by a female director. It catapulted Stewart and Pattinson into global stardom, sparked the still-raging vampire renaissance, and turned “Twi-hards” into one of the most passionate (and meme’d) fandoms in history.
Seventeen years later, the cultural footprint of that rainy November night in L.A. is undeniable. The five-film saga ultimately grossed over $3.3 billion worldwide, launched a thousand think-pieces about abstinence metaphors and toxic relationships, and gave us sparkly vampires, baseball scenes set to Muse, and Robert Pattinson muttering “This is the skin of a killer, Bella.” Love it or hate it, on November 17, 2008, Twilight sank its teeth into pop culture—and it still hasn’t let go.
You can find Twilight on Amazon HERE.
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