'Harry Potter' scores biggest opening weekend ever with $168.6 mil

[GrnMarvl14]

Source.

Hello, trifecta. After scoring the largest midnight debut and opening day, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2 also landed the big one: best opening weekend.

According to studio estimates, the PG-13 wizarding movie collected $168.6 million this weekend, surpassing The Dark Knight‘s record $158.4 million and giving Warner Bros. the two best opening weekends ever. However, when adjusted for inflation, Knight would still be king with approximately $173 million in today’s ticket prices. Nevertheless, everyone involved with the eighth and final Potter film should be mighty proud. Not only did the movie bring in record-breaking amounts of moolah, but it’s currently the best-reviewed wide release of the year, according to both Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes. And it received an overall “A” rating from CinemaScore audiences.

Potter earned a record $15.5 million at IMAX theaters, according to the large-screen company. The film’s conversion to 3-D, however, produced middling results, as just 43 percent of the movie’s debut came from 3-D screens. Transformers: Dark of the Moon, by comparison, harvested 60 percent of its opening from 3-D showings. Overseas, where audiences are still enamored with 3-D, Potter‘s three-dimensional share was a stronger 61 percent. Speaking of overseas, Potter grossed $307 million in 59 countries, surpassing Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides‘ $260.4 million for the largest foreign opening of all time. Add in its domestic total and Potter’s worldwide debut becomes $475.6 million, trouncing the prior all-time benchmark of $394 million set by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

The film, it should be noted, was extremely front-loaded. Domestically, Potter fell 53 percent from Friday to Saturday, which is the steepest Friday-to-Saturday drop ever for a movie opening in more than 2,000 theaters. While its Friday gross of $92.1 million was the largest single-day tally ever, its estimated Saturday gross of $42.9 million ranks ninth among all Saturday results. This kind of massive drop was to be expected, with throngs of Potter fans opting to see the movie as early as possible. It’ll be interesting to see how the film holds up next weekend as the initial Potter-mania wears off.

Impressive. Not entirely surprising (at least not following the opening day gross), but impressive nonetheless.

 

[Ghetsis-Dennis]

That's all likely to change when "The Dark Knight Rising" comes out.

 

[GrnMarvl14]

I certainly wouldn't be surprised if it managed to do just that.

 

[Dorothy LaRouge]

Well-deserved, in my opinion. It was a wonderful film.

 

[evkl]

Well-deserved, in my opinion. It was a wonderful film.

This is pretty much what I was going to post. It isn't the best movie ever, but it's an extremely well-made conclusion to an on-the-whole quite good movie franchise, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

[Proxima Centauri B]

I loved that movie,I think it was the best one, so Im not surprised.

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

I really enjoyed the final Harry Potter movie and I'm not surprised it reached $168.6 million in 3 days.

 

[KaPi96]

Wow lots of big numbers in the first post.

The movie was really good though and to be expected considering how the previous movie fared.

 

[Giovanni Sakaki]

I'm not so interested in box office records as I used to be, but the movie was great.

This fond memory is probably shared by millions of other young adults my age, but I remember when I went to go see the movie 'Cats and Dogs' and saw the trailer for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. I remember, I was so excited for it to come out! I read the first two books in 1999 and they'd become my favourites since then.

I got to go see it two weeks after it first came out, and even then, the cinema was still packed. But the film took my breath away! It matched the way I'd seen the book in my imagination almost perfectly. I was so happy that nearly everything was kept in (though I remember being confused as to why they took away Snape's potion test).

I lived in England then and I also thought it was so nice to hear familiar accents and see british customs/ways of talking reflected in the movie. Because before the movie was made, I was quite afraid they were going to americanise it! (not that I have anything at all against american actors or ways of speaking!)