It may be somewhat hard to believe, but this year marks 15 years since the release of Twilight.
To celebrate, the blockbuster film’s franchise is putting on a special live event at London’s Eventim Apollo.
The one night-only event, which is taking place just a couple of days before Halloween on October 29, will consist of a screening of the original 2008 film accompanied by an on-stage 12-piece live band which will play the film’s score.
More than one thousand candles will also be set up around the concert space, transporting audiences to Edward Cullen and Bella Swan’s dark, magical and romantic world.
Tickets, which start from £27.50, went on sale today and are still available to buy.
JUST ANNOUNCED: The legendary romance saga celebrates its 15-year anniversary with an epic film-to-concert event accompanied by a live band at Eventim Apollo this October.
— Eventim Apollo (@EventimApollo) July 5, 2023
Get tickets Friday at 10am.https://t.co/uaC6GIGUPM
Sign up for pre-sale access at https://t.co/li1cJtUEX5 pic.twitter.com/T16plYhLtC
The original film, which is based on the best-selling 2005 novel Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, follows the love story between a human teenage girl, Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart), and a 104-year-old vampire, Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). The story is about how the duo overcome the many hurdles they face as a rather atypical couple.
The film was a huge success, making over $407 million worldwide at the box office, which subsequently led to four further films. In total, the franchise made a whopping $3.3 billion worldwide and $1 billion more in DVD and Blu-ray sales.
At the time of its release, the franchise gave rise to hundreds of articles and think-pieces as people discussed topics such as what the success of the franchise meant about society, whether there was more to Meyer’s plot lines than met the eye, and whether Bella was a feminist figure.
For example, The Guardian released an article in 2010 titled “Twilight: the franchise that ate feminism”, which said that, “heroine Bella’s fate isn’t just depressing – it’s downright deceptive.”
These crticisms, however, fell on many deaf ears, including those of Meyers who spoke about feminism on her website: “In my own opinion (key word), the foundation of feminism is this: being able to choose. The core of anti-feminism is, conversely, telling a woman she can’t do something solely because she’s a woman—taking any choice away from her specifically because of her gender…” she said.
The series also launched both Pattinson and Stewart into superstardom when they were still teenagers.
“Something personal became not the most personal thing,” said Stewart, speaking on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2016 about the difficulty of finding such heightened fame at a young age. “Which is awesome because to share that is great, but at the same time I was 17 or 18 when it all kind of went down, and that’s the most uncomfortable, terrible, weird [time].”
