09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Cosmopolitan
All the Director of ‘Twilight' Got After the Film's Success Was...a Cupcake
The Twilight saga is as iconic as it is chaotic. Not only did the Stephenie Meyer book series sell more than 160 million copies and spend over 274 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list (!!), but its film adaptations broke records as well. The first movie in the franchise earned $192 million in the U.S. alone and eventually made $408 million worldwide, per Variety.
In a new interview with The Guardian, the movie's director, Catherine Hardwicke, revealed that she received underwhelming gift from the film studio after its huge opening weekend in November 2008. After all, Twilight opened with $69 million and launched an entire franchise based on the romantasy novel series.
'I walked into a room with all these gifts, and everybody was congratulating the studio, and they gave me a box,' Catherine told the publication. 'I opened it up, and it was a mini cupcake.'
She added that successful male directors are typically gifted 'a car, or a three-picture deal, or [the chance] to do basically whatever you want.'
This isn't the first time Catherine opened up about her journey directing the movie that started the worldwide phenomenon. During a 2023 appearance on the Watchalong podcast with Josh Horowitz, she said that the studio always underestimated Twilight's potential, as it catered to young women.
'Every studio in town turned this down,' she said on the pod. 'MTV and Paramount, they put it in turnaround. Everyone said we weren't making this. Even when I started on the job, they said, 'You know, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants was a popular book for girls. It made $29 million. That's probably all this movie can ever make.' Of course, our opening weekend was $69 million, and we made $400 million overall. Nobody could predict it!'
She added, 'Up to the day before opening weekend, like that Wednesday or Thursday before, they said, 'If we make $30 [million] or something, we'll be ecstatic.'
Little did they know, it would go on to become the first franchise ever to have three movies earn more than $130 million in their first three days. Not too shabby.
