In recognition of the highly anticipated Twilight film, here are some fun facts about the series.
Twilight is the story of 17-year-old Bella Swan, who moves to a small town in Washington State and falls in love with a vampire named Edward Cullen. Published in 2005, the book was followed by New Moon in 2006 and Eclipse in 2007. The books have sold 8.5 million copies in the U.S., according to Publisher’s Weekly.
Author Stephenie Meyer, a Phoenix housewife with a degree in English from Brigham Young University, based the first novel on a vivid dream she had in 2003 (Stephenie.Meyer.com).
Breaking Dawn, the fourth book in the Twilight saga, sold 1.3 million copies on its publication date, August 2, 2008. Little, Brown reported it as the highest single-day sales in the company’s history (Publisher’s Weekly).
The Twilight books have been translated into 37 languages and sold more than 14 million copies worldwide, according to the Daily Telegraph (UK).
The Twilight series has drawn frequent comparisons with the Harry Potter series in terms of its cultural impact. Eclipse knocked the last installment of J.K. Rowling’s series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, to the #2 spot on the Barnes and Noble Fiction Bestseller’s list when it was published, and the series has made Meyer a millionaire many times over. The Twilight film was be released on Nov. 21, the same date the next Harry Potter film was originally going to be released (Wall Street Journal).
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows sold 8.3 million copies in its first 24 hours, according to the New York Times. The Potter books have been translated into 67 languages and sold 400 million copies worldwide (BBC). And while the four books in the Twilight series weigh in at 2,458 pages, the seven-part Harry Potter series breaks the scales at 4,100 pages (Wall Street Journal).
The series’ has not escaped controversy. Citing concerns about age-appropriate content, the Capistrano Unified School District in California banned the books from middle school libraries in September 2008 – only to reinstate the books four days later without explanation (Orange County Register).