Well it looks like the Twilight phenomenon has corrupted one who I thought was immune — Manohla Dargis of the NY Times who wrote in her review today that she “had surrendered.” She also called the love story “ridiculously appealing.” I can’t say I got on board in the same way, I thought the film was really cheesy, but then I expected it to be really cheesy. Taylor Lautner can’t act. The makeup annoys me.

But I’m not really interested in the Twilight phenomenon for the content. I’m interested in it for the phenomenon. For the fact that a franchise told from a female’s perspective is again about to take the box office by storm.

And make no mistake about it, this is a movie for girls and women. I don’t see a lot of dudes going to see a film that spends the first 20 minutes on a wedding and then the next 20 minutes on the married couple having sex for the first time where everything is white and perfect (except for the bruises on Bella).

For those unintiated, this film is about Bella (Kristen Stewart) and her deciding to keep her baby (which is growing at an accelerated rate) even though no one knows if it will be human or vampire or part of both. She decides to keep the baby even though the baby is literally killing her from the inside out. It’s kind of half a pro choice and half a pro life story. And Mr. sparkly vampire himself Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) goes off about how they are supposed to be partners and she gave him no choice in this. Newsflash Edward — it’s her body. While it is weird to see her literally dying before our eyes, it’s still her choice whether she wants to give birth to a humpire.

But the twihards are already losing their shit (have you seen their tent cities which rival the Occupy movements across the country), and this weekend will be big at the box office for Breaking Dawn Part 1. Estimates have it grossing upwards of $140 million. That would equal the opening of New Moon which wound up grossing a bit short of $300 million. Eclipse which opened lower (because it was the summer with a lot of competition) still managed to make about $300. And while the studio Summit got more guys to see New Moon for the action sequences, this time I would take a guess that 70% of the ticket buyers will be girls and women and I would also guess that over 50% will be over 25.