"Twilight Saga - Breaking Dawn - Part 2" - Fans Bid Farewell - NYTimes.com All across the country, members of Team Edward and Team Jacob - not to mention Team Bella and Team Renesmee - were squaring off, as the final installment of the "Twilight" film series had its premiere on Thursday evening. "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2," the fifth film in the adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's blockbuster teenage vampire tale, was poised to break box office records, with as much as $150 million in projected sales this weekend, according to the ticket seller Fandango. It earned an estimated $30.4 million nationwide at 10 p.m. and midnight screenings on Thursday. The distributor, Summit Entertainment, stoked fans by offering marathon screenings of the earlier movies all day, before sold-out 10 p.m. showings of the finale. Fans lined up, wearing T-shirts proclaiming their allegiances. But in New York, while there were crowds at some theaters, the city's response seemed almost blasé. There were few hourslong lines or other signs of fan fervor, and the mania did not seem to match that for "Harry Potter" or "The Hunger Games," two other recent youth phenomena. It certainly paled in comparison with the camp-outs that happen whenever the "Twilight" stars - Kristen Stewart (Bella), Robert Pattinson (Edward) and Taylor Lautner (Jacob) - make appearances. As the last film in the series hit screens here, there was a mere sprinkling of Twihards. Still, Wayne Dominici, 19, arrived around 4 p.m. to get a prime seat at the AMC Loews 34th Street, with his mother, Nancy Soto, 43, a social worker from Roselle, N.J.; the screenings were a tradition for them. "We want to see what happens next," he said. Ms. Soto, an aficionado of vampire movies who, unlike her son, has read all the "Twilight" books - "I wish there were more of them," she said, "at least two more" - confided that she was Team Edward. "He's more the adult," she explained. For Kim Head, 26, who works at Jacques Torres Chocolate in TriBeCa, the series had the opposite appeal. "I like the innocence of it," she said. I like that I feel like I'm 16 again. I feel like I'm re-virginized. Talk among theatergoers turned to the real-life on-and-off romance between Mr. Pattinson and Ms. Stewart, which was briefly derailed when it was revealed that Ms. Stewart had a dalliance with Rupert Sanders, her director in "Snow White & the Huntsman." Fret not: K-Stew and R-Patz are apparently back on now. "When the scandal happened," said Nina Catalano, 19, a student at the Fashion Institute of Technology and an avowed "Twilight" megafan, "I got calls from my family, like, "How are you doing?" I'm like: "Guys, it didn't happen to me. But I'm getting through it." " Ms. Catalano had camped out during the recent northeaster to meet Mr. Pattinson - "I got a little frostbite," she said, showing off a photo of herself with him on her phone, clearly worth it - and had her own ideas about how Ms. Meyer should end the series. "I always want her to finish some of the plotlines she left open, like whether they're going to college," she said. But mostly she was bereft at the conclusion, whatever it would be. "I'm kind of in denial," she said. It's just been such a big part of my life for four years. Her friend Olivia LaTronica, 19, also had a vision for the series finale: "Edward ends up with me." "I saw the first one five times," she said of the 2008 film. Last year we went to the midnight screening and then we went the next morning. Our friendship is, like, built on "Twilight." " At the Clearview Chelsea, where, minutes before 10 p.m. it was still possible to walk up and buy a ticket, the crowd was more arch. "I'm an ironic fan," said Elliot Townsend, 23, a sales clerk and photographer. "It's fluff," agreed his friend Daniela Johnson, 28. They like the pop-culture hoopla that surrounds the series. "It's a fun little tradition," Mr. Townsend said. Keeping the youth alive. Jason Sender, a law student, and Steven Mizrahi, a lawyer, both wearing multiple "Twilight"-themed slap bracelets from a promotion, were posing for photos with a poster of Mr. Lautner outside the theater. "I like it for the wrong reasons," Mr. Sender, 30, said. I think Kristen Stewart couldn't act her way out of a box. I think sparkly vampires are stupid. "I read the books just so I could say they were bad," he added. "I have a degree in creative writing and she's" - Ms. Meyer - "so heinous, like sophomore-in-high-school" bad. Mr. Mizrahi, 27, looked mock horrified. He, too, had read the novels. "I thought it was good," he said. It's not the greatest writing in the world. Still, he added: "I'm ready for it to be over. We've had a good ride. We can move on to something else. Mr. Sender said, "We did the last one together," referring to seeing "Breaking Dawn - Part 1." I kept laughing at inappropriate times. Mr. Mizrahi: "And I kept crying at appropriate times."