Over the weekend, the world sent off one of the most beloved literary/cinematic franchises in grand style. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (which, just in case you’ve been living under a cyber rock, stars Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint) scored the best opening 3-day weekend of all time with an estimated domestic $168.6 million total, which captured the top domestic prize from The Dark Knight (whose previous winning total was $158.4 million); the movie also captured an additional foreign take of $307 million with a worldwide total $475.6 million. At the risk of sounding chintzy, these numbers are nothing less than magical.
Here are the records set thus far by Deathly Hallows: Part II: Biggest midnight-showing total of $43.5 million; biggest one-day opening day and Friday total with $92.1 million; and biggest international opening weekend of $307 million, which ousts the record set just earlier this summer by Pirates Of The Caribbean 4, which took in $260.4 million internationally during its opener. The only major record that Deathly Hallows: Part II didn’t break was the Saturday record of $51.3 million previously set by Spider-Man 3 — not that this slight omission matters in the grand scheme of things.
In terms of likewise comparisons, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II has already scored half of the worldwide $955 million total of Deathly Hallows: Part I, which kicked off with merely a $125 million domestic opening weekend, so I imagine that Part II still has many legs with which to stride in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, Transformers: Dark of the Moon held onto second place in its third week with $21.3 million (and a $302.8 million domestic total) while a couple of two-week holdovers — Horrible Bosses (with $17.6 million) and Zookeeper ($12.3 million ) — took third and fourth place, respectively speaking. In fifth place, Cars 2 added another $8.3 million in its fourth week (for a domestic total of $165.3 million).
Sadly, this weekend’s only other wide-release debut, Winnie The Pooh, took in only $8 million. This was a wonderfully touching movie, but Disney really chose a bad weekend with which to introduce the latest contribution to the Pooh franchise. In other words, attempting to compete against the last installment of the Harry Potter francise is a losing game, no matter how one looks the situation. Still, I suspect that Pooh will do quite well in the home video market.
Movie stills courtesy of AllMoviePhoto
I saw winnie the pooh this weekend, and it is ADORABLE. Such a shame disney chose the same weekend as harry potter.
I’m sorry but I just don’t think the HP movies are all that good. I only really like the first 2. Maybe it’s because I love the books so much that the films fall short. Idk.
Proud to say I am not among the contributors to the record setting this weekend.
@L- I thought Winnie looked like something I would enjoy seeing. Glad to hear it was good!
We will buy Winnie the pooh when it comes out on blu ray.
I saw Harry Potter and it was amazing!!!! Alan Rickman in 3D can never be a bad thing!!!!
It was SO GOOD! I laughed, I cried, I shouted at the awful woman who brought her crying baby into the theater. It was an all around good time.
Bravo HP! I only hope that the latest installment of Twilight doesn’t generate this much hype (although I’ll probably be disappointed). This series was nothing short of outstanding, I’m thrilled that JK Rowling is going to publish more books.
My husband and I saw it in IMAX 3-D and it was AMAZING. I too laughed, cried, etc. Yeah, I’m a sap.
I took my son to see it in regular 2-D yesterday and he loved it too. I’m thrilled that I saw it in both formats….the effects were amazing, but then the story was too.
LOVED IT
God, I wish Rowling would write a sequel.
Years ago, some of us on the Amazon.com discussion board would go into a mini-frenzy each time a new book came out. We’d discuss the book to death, dissecting the plot, characters, etc. Then we’d spend weeks anticipating what would happen in the next book.
There used to be a web site that sorted you into a Hogwarts house. I wanted to be in Gryffindor but it kept dumping me into Ravenclaw.
I hate these stupid records, they need to be adjusted to the ever-rising price of movie tickets.
I think in some areas, tickets are nearly 2x the price they were a few years ago. And now they also charge you extra for a slightly bigger screen which they are aloud to call IMAX and 3-d.
Whatever, I’m not impressed
Rupert Grint is so pretty. He has dreamy eyes…reminds me a little of Jim Sturgess, sometimes.
HP7 can beat all records because of 3D and it lasts 2 hours
@Krissy…I’m with you on that one.I rather want to know how many people saw it then how much money it made.I would’nt be surprised if Gone With The Wind would be in the top 5 or 10.If I’m not mistaking until Jaws came out it was still the top grossing movie of all time.And back then you could go see a movie for a nickel. 🙂
I can’t wait! Read all the books and I swear there was never a final end that tied up the whole story like this. I’m waiting for about a week until the crowds die down. I have a 13 and 11 year old and the anticipation is big.
Yep, I’ll shell out for the IMAX 3-D, totally worth it!
Alan Rickman is SOOO hot!!! I cried so bad during “A Prince’s Tale.” Great film…
@ Tiffany
You will NOT be disappointed!
Not a Potter fan but I hope this movie breaks all the records it can — just to work as a big “SIT DOWN” to Michael Bay.
Aww, HP is my baby,I LOVE the books and movies and J.K. is brilliant! I took my kids to the midnight premiere…which I don’t often take them out late, but this was HP and so fun to do so…and besides they were well behaved, I was on top of it,lol. I was laughing from the start with Hermione as Bellatrix in the bank…no one else laughed, huh, I guess it was just me,lol
@Dizzybenny, Gone with the Wind is still #1 when adjusted for inflation(see http://boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm), with Star Wars and The Sound of Music rounding out the top three.
It’s a bit difficult to really compare current and past box office. Older films would get re-released, adding to their total. Now, films are released to DVD for rental and purchases, and those revenues aren’t tracked towards box office take.
Anyway, it is interesting to see the all-time box office list. 🙂
I’m a book purist so all of the movies have fallen short for me. But when I put the books aside, I was still entertained.
But that being said, I had said it years ago and will continue to bang my drum about it: They should have waited at least 3 to 5 years after the final book was released to even start screen writing the films. That way they had the entire scope of the story before them and could make the movies accordingly.
Would we have the current cast we do today? No, of course not, and we wouldn’t have missed them.
Agree with Eve, haha.
Ok, I’ll admit I contributed to that $92.1 million opening, but I had to see it on opening day, couldn’t wait until the dvd (which I will definitely be buying to complete the set). Loved it. Hate that it’s over. Wish there could be another movie from a “years later” vantage point featuring the same cast (whoever is left of course). Love this series and look forward to rereading all the books and of course re-watching all the movies.
Can’t wait to see HP, but it will be hard. Love those movies!! Such a great story and I’m sad to see it end.
Yeah America is in such ‘poverty crisis’ but we have money to spend to make these kids richer
I went and saw it! Going to the movies is too expensive for me but I always go watch the Harry Potter ones! I loved it! Wish the first three were as good.
Gosh Mita lighten up. Even us poor folks have to have fun sometimes.
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