“The Twilight Saga: The Eclipse,” the eagerly anticipated third installment in the vampire romance series, sold about $121.4 million worth of tickets from Wednesday to Friday, said distributor Summit Entertainment. For the traditional Friday-Sunday portion, the privately owned studio forecast sales of $80.2 million, and a four-day total of $106.1 million with inclusion of the Monday holiday.

That would take its six-day haul to $198.9 million. The record for an Independence Day release is held by “Spider-Man 2,” which earned $180 million in its first six days in 2004, having also opened on a Wednesday. As for the other films in the “Twilight” series, “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” earned $179 million in its first six days during a nonholiday period in November. A year earlier, the six-day haul for the first film, “Twilight,” was $88 million. The actual weekend sales amounts for the new film could vary widely when further estimates are issued on Sunday and Monday. Studios sometimes err on the conservative side when issuing forecasts. Final data will be released on Tuesday. If initial estimates hold, “Eclipse” would rank No. 3 among all-time six-day openers, behind “The Dark Knight” ($222 million) and “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” ($215 million), according to Box Office Mojo. The family film “The Last Airbender” from “Sixth Sense” director M. Night Shyamalan was another new release. The two-day total for the Thursday release was $32.95 million, said distributor Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc.