The staggering domestic total for “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2” is the best three-day opening for a film ever, distributor Warner Bros said yesterday. It beat the previous record of US$158.4 million over the initial three days for the 2008 Batman movie, “The Dark Knight”.
Internationally, the finale for “Harry Potter” captured US$307 million in 59 countries since it opened last week, another record. That includes weekend sales plus Wednesday and Thursday for some markets.
The prior record for an overseas opening belonged to “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” the fourth instalment of the series released in May, which took in about US$260 million outside North America in its debut.
The eighth film in the “Harry Potter” series about a teenage wizard and his friends battling against evil also set records for the largest opening-day domestic sales total, largest midnight screenings and largest opening on giant IMAX screens.
The movie took in an average US$38,526 on more than 4,300 screens, according to Warner Bros, a unit of Time Warner Inc. It was the first “Potter” film also released in 3D.
“Harry Potter,” already the highest-grossing film franchise ever with over US$6.4 billion in global ticket sales, is based on the novels of British author J.K. Rowling.
“A CULTURAL EVENT”
The massive numbers for “Deathly Hallows — Part 2” showed the story still enchants audiences a decade after Harry’s first film adventure was released.
“It’s become a cultural event,” said Dan Fellman, head of domestic distribution for Warner Bros. Young fans stuck with the series as they grew up and the audience expanded over the years, Fellman said, adding that final global ticket receipts could “easily” reach the rare US$1 billion mark.
The “Harry Potter” magic dwarfed other films over the weekend, but there were a couple of notable events.
Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris” reached a milestone by hitting US$41.8 million in domestic sales since its release, making it the highest-grossing film in North America from director Allen, according to distributor Sony Pictures Classics.
“Transformers: Dark of the Moon” took the No. 2 spot on US and Canadian box office charts with an estimated US$21.3 million over three days, distributor Paramount Pictures said. The film ranks as the year’s first film to top US$300 million in domestic sales with US$302.8 million total.
Rounding out the weekend’s top five domestic films were “Horrible Bosses” with US$17.6 million, “Zookeeper” with US$12.3 million and “Cars 2” with US$8.3 million. Disney’s new “Winnie the Pooh” movie finished sixth with US$8 million.
“Deathly Hallows — Part 2” and “Horrible Bosses” were released by Warner Bros. Pictures, a unit of Time Warner Inc. “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” was distributed by Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc.
“Zookeeper” and “Midnight in Paris” were released by various units of Sony Corp. “Cars 2” and “Winnie the Pooh” were distributed by Disney’s Pixar animation unit, a division of Walt Disney Co. — Reuters
