Los Angeles ? Fans are over the moon for “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse,” which pulled in $68.5 million in its first day to set a new record for a movie debuting on Wednesday.

The third installment in the vampire romance surpassed the previous Wednesday record of $62 million set last year by “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.”

But “Eclipse” fell short of the all-time best opening day, a record held by its predecessor, last November’s “The Twilight Saga: New Moon,” which took in $72.7 million. “New Moon” opened on a Friday, typically a busier day at theaters than weekdays.

“Eclipse” opened in a record 4,416 theaters and expands to 4,468 cinemas today for the Fourth of July weekend, one of the biggest box-office weekends of the year.