Earlier this morning, I went on NBC in San Diego to talk about the online hysteria surrounding Twilight Saga: New Moon. The segment is embedded below, but given that both Crimson Hexagon and Trendrr were kind enough to provide exclusive (and astonishing) data surrounding New Moon social media mania, we thought it best that we expand on a few of the interesting findings here.

By now you’re well aware that the MySpace/Ustream partnership to live broadcast the red carpet premiere to the web was a record-breaking win for both companies. Amassing 3 million viewers, and 2 million uniques is no small feat, and it happens to be a first for Ustream. It’s quite the coup; after all this was just a red carpet event.

Data from Trendrr also shows that tweets, around the time of the premiere, peaked at more than 12,000 tweets per hour. And the hysteria is just getting started. As you can tell from the graph above, New Moon related tweets are now climbing at an exponential rate, with over 81,000 tweets on Tuesday, November 17th.

"TWILIGHT: NEW MOON" COUNTDOWN

In May, Hero Complex contributor Gina McIntyre traveled north to Vancouver to visit the set of "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" and talk to the creative minds behind one of the most anticipated films of 2009. This week, as we count down to the Friday release of the vampy sequel, McIntyre gives us daily dispatches from her trip. Today it's a Q&A with screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg, who was brought in to adapt Stephenie Meyer's novels.
GM: So director Chris Weitz seems to run an incredibly relaxed set...

MR: This is a happy set. I was with him after delivering the first draft, we had a couple of meetings on the second draft and he was the same guy then as he is here on set. He didn’t suddenly turn into some maniac, stressed out and crazed. He’s really impressive. He’s just capturing every moment with the actors. I haven’t seen one wrong moment with the actors.

GM: What changes did you make to that first draft of "New Moon"?

MR: There was a lot of honing down, cutting down and eliminating certain scenes and pulling out certain elements of the story just to have it move faster.

We really don’t mean for today to become a Twilight clusterf*uck, but New Moon is everywhere. We’ve just discovered that the film has broken Fandango’s record for the most presale tickers ever. According to ComingSoon, New Moon has managed to beat the likes of The Dark Knight, Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith and Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince to take the advance ticket crown.

New Moon will officially hit theaters this Friday, on November 20th but fans aren’t taking any chances with getting a seat for opening night. The film’s ticket holders are currently taking up 86% of Fandangos weekly ticket sales. Thousands of screenings are already sold out for Thursday’s midnight showing across the country with no signs of letting up. With such an ample money making opportunity on their hands, theater owners are more than willing to meet the demand by adding more tickets and screenings as they sell out.

Tickets went on sale for the film back in August and since then the film has continuously found itself among the top five weekly sellers on the site.