Forbes dishes on the Hollywood Vampire trend in terms of $$:Read the rest of the article here, and watch Forbes' slideshow of most powerful vampires in terms of being powerful and lucrative. Edward Cullen rolls in at #5, but Bill Compton takes #1."Vampires have become a substitute for fairy tales that adults couldn't tell themselves anymore," says William Patrick Day, professor of cinema and English at Oberlin College and author of Vampire Legends in Contemporary American Culture: What Becomes a Legend Most. "Vampires are dangerous and sexy and powerful and they have what humans want--immortality."
And they create what companies want: cash. According to Box Office Mojo, vampire films have grossed $1.3 billion since 1978, with an average opening gross of $15 million. That's a bigger first-weekend average than romantic comedies ($10 million), romantic dramas ($10 million) and slapstick comedies ($11 million) and on par with action flicks like the Rush Hour franchise, a product of Time Warner's New Line Cinema.
