Box office numbers are in for Thursday, August 19 and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse has now officially surpassed the domestic total of New Moon. The film took in another $190,143 from 1,212 locations for a per theater average of $157 representing a decrease of 0.7% from Wednesday. This adds up to a cumulative domestic total of $296,649,934 after 51 days in release. Adding in overseas returns of $380.6M gives Eclipse a current worldwide total of $677,249,934.

For those comparing the films in The Twilight Saga, at this point in its release history (after 51 days) New Moon had taken in $290,277,863. Eclipse is now at $296,649,934. Both films hit the $250M mark on the 16th day. The total domestic gross for New Moon was $296,623,634 (after 132 days). Eclipse has now broken that total by $26,600 (after 51 days). The film is now within striking distance of the elusive $300M mark. It needs about $3.35M to get to that number. It took New Moon 21 more days to earn an additional $3.35M after its 51st day, and Eclipse is clearly doing better. On the other hand, New Moon was still in 1,167 theaters after 51 days while Eclipse drops to 557 tomorrow. Still, even after New Moon’s theater count had dropped to 444 (after 63 days) it still went on to take in another $3.8M. Therefore, it should take no more than one more month for Eclipse to earn another $3.35M and pass $300M.

Now wouldn’t be a bad time to start planning for your DVD release parties. The street dates for Twilight and New Moon were both on day 121 of their theatrical runs (Saturdays). Following that line of thinking, Eclipse’s 121st day will be October 28th, a Thursday. The following Saturday would be October 30th — Halloween weekend. On the other hand, sources have told me that Summit is planning for a holiday season release — some say November while others say Christmas time.