After grossing $68.5 million on its opening day last Wednesday, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse has slowed down for the July 4th weekend. On Wednesday, Eclipse grossed the second highest ever opening day box office receipts record, just falling short of last year’s “The Twilight Saga: New Moon, which grossed $72.7 million in it’s first day. Ever since that day however, Eclipse has only averaged $23 million a day over the next four days, including an estimate for what is expected on Sunday July 4th.

So far over five days, its total of $161 million is short of the five-day record of $200 million set last year by Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

Richie Fay, who is head of distribution for Summit Entertainment, which produces the Twilight Series, said that he thought the weather was holding down box office sales as people enjoy the nice weather, the fireworks, and barbecues this weekend. He was optimistic that people would come back to watch the movie after the holiday.

Despite the drop in revenue, Eclipse easily held the number one spot for the weekend, with a three day weekend total of $69 million. Despite awful reviews from critics, The Last Airbender from Paramount took in $40.7 million to capture the number two spot for the three day weekend. Toy Story 3, which had held the number one spot the last two weekends came in at number three with $30.2 million.

Total Hollywood revenues were at $193 million from Friday to Sunday, up 19% from the July 4th weekend last year. Revenues for the 2010 season are $2.16 billion, which is slightly down from last year. However, once higher ticket prices are factored in, summer attendance is down 6.9% from last year.