It’s no surprise that Catherine Hardwicke’s latest film, the adaptation of the Stephenie Meyer novel Twilight, was the champion at the box office this weekend, earning over $70.6 million.

Twilight marks the biggest opening weekend debut for a woman director in history. The previous winner was Mimi Leder’s Deep Impact back in 1998 which earned $41.2 million its opening weekend. Summit Entertainment, Twilight‘s production company, is seeing its first big success as well, the last one being Never Back Down which grossed $8.6 million in its March 2008 release.

Summit, when hearing upon the success of Twilight this weekend, announced that the book series’ sequel, New Moon, will indeed be hitting the big screen with its own film adaptation. New Moon, unlike its first installment, Twilight, deals with losing true love versus finding true love. The novel spent over 30 weeks on the New York Times Bestsellers list.

Twilight stars Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart as the book’s main characters, Edward and Bella, who fall in love despite the fact that Edward is a vampire. A pack of blood thirsty vampires, unlike Edward, along with Bella’s family and friends try to separate them, putting their love to the ultimate test.

HOTTEST TOP 10 PHOTO GALLERIES >>