According to Variety:

“America bled green for Summit’s B.O.-busting vampires. “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 1” opened to $72 million Stateside yesterday.

Comparable to the franchise’s best (“New Moon” snagged a $72.7 million opening day in 2009), the figure has “Breaking Dawn — Part 1” squarely in line with pre-weekend estimates in the vicinity of $140 million. Pic also reps the franchise’s highest midnight take at $30.3 million, eclipsing “Eclipse.”

Leaving little room for competition, “Twilight’s” closest challenger last night was Warner Bros.’ “Happy Feet Two,” which danced off with $5.9 million domestically.”

These figures are only for the US.  I’ll give you Australia’s box office figures on Monday, but realistically I can’t see that BD won’t open at no. 1 – can you?  I’ll keep you updated on the figures as we go, but the success of this film is a given really … like Rob says “it’s a great safety net”.