A new moon could convert to big money this weekend at local movie theaters.

Regency Cinema 8 in London had a midnight showing today of “New Moon,” the second installment in the Twilight series.

That was the first of 15 showtimes for the vampire/love story movie this weekend, and General Manager Mike Hensley expects possible record crowds through the turnstiles by Sunday night.

“The midnight showing was sold out for the last two to three weeks,” Hensley said. “We expect about 4,000 people to see the movie this weekend at this theater. It’s an exciting time for movie theaters right now.”

Hensley said he wasn’t sure if “New Moon” would eclipse the number posted by the reigning movie champion, but it could come close.

“We’re like every other theater,” Hensley said. “The No. 1 of all time has been ‘Titanic.’ That movie sold out for 13 straight showtimes here. If this reaches ‘Titanic’ numbers, we would all be thrilled.”

Kelly Gray, librarian at North Laurel High School and sponsor of the school’s book club, is taking a group of students to see the movie Tuesday afternoon. Gray also took a group to see “Twilight” — the first movie.

“We’re really excited,” Gray said. “We’ve got about 50 boys and girls going Tuesday. We had a book club meeting (Wednesday) morning and had a ‘New Moon’ premier. We had a trivia contest on ‘Twilight’ and ‘New Moon.’”

When asked if the club members wore their “Twilight” apparel to the meeting, she said, “They deck out in their ‘Twilight’ garb quite often. That wouldn’t have been unusual.”

Gray said her students got hooked on the books long before the movies were planned.

“(The first book) actually came out several years ago and won several book awards,” she said. “It became a cultural phenomenon, similar to the way the Harry Potter series did.

“Then, with the release of the following books, it snowballed from there. So the books did drive the release of the first movie. It was such a hit that a second movie was produced, and there are plans for the other two.”

Hensley said Twilight is even bigger than Harry Potter, from what he has seen.

“The Twilight series seems to cross a few more boundaries,” he said. “The women like the romance and the young men like the action.”

Hensley said the “New Moon” plot builds on the original movie, with even more flavor added.

“There is a group of vampires and a group of werewolves, and they kind of stay apart,” he said. “But one werewolf (Jacob) and one vampire (Edward) become interested in the same girl, and that’s where the friction starts. It is the classic love triangle plugged into this movie setting and storyline.”

Hensley said the books attract a key age group for the movie industry.

“The book series was very successful with the audience of 12 to 25 years old,” he said. “They have read the entire series, they know the characters and the story line and they are excited about the movie. It hits the key demographic for ticket sales.”

Gray said the Twilight phenomenon is not restricted to the young.

“The two librarians here were actually given midnight premier tickets by one of our students,” she said. “So we are going to drag ourselves out there, and we will be looking for the over-40 section. We’ll see how many older people are there. We may outnumber the teenagers.”

Contact Joseph Dill at jdill@sentinel-echo.com