Older News First Day: The Harry Potter franchise looks as though it may end as it began, with records for (among other things) biggest single day and biggest weekend. Back in 2001, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone set then-record marks of $32.3 million for the day and $90.3 million for the weekend. On Friday, Deathly Hallows: Part 2 showed how it's done these days with a stellar $92.1 million opening day, which would have been enough for the weekend record just ten years ago. Its next goal is The Dark Knight's $158.4 million opening weekend, which is very much in its sights, but will still take a little bit of work. If we assume Deathly Hallows 2 tracks the daily performance of Deathly Hallows 1, it will drop about 40% on Saturday to around $55 million and another third on Sunday, to $37 million or so. That would give it a weekend of over $180 million. However, the massive midnight performance on Thursday night/Friday morning makes that a rather optimistic projection. If we take out the $43.5 million in midnight grosses for Hallows 2 and the $24 million earned at midnight by Hallows 1, the more conservative projections become $48 million on Saturday and $32 million on Sunday, for a total of $172 million over the weekend. That's still a handy $14 million ahead of The Dark Knight, but doesn't take into account the fact that the final movie in the franchise is likely to be more front-loaded than its predecessor. If we assume that 10% of Potter fans saw the movie on Friday this time around instead of Saturday, we could see the rest of the weekend roll out with $40 million on Saturday, $27 million on Sunday, and a final total of $159 million. Basically a tie with The Dark Knight. If I were a gambling man, I would call it 50-50 that Deathly Hallows Part 2 will break the all-time record for a single weekend. My hunch is that it will just get there with perhaps $160 million, but it will likely be a close call. http://www.the-numbers.com/interactive/newsStory.php?newsID=6388
'Potter' Targets Foreign Opening Record
Thursday Update: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 had a remarkable overseas debut yesterday, grossing an estimated $44.9 million in 26 territories. Across the same group of territories, that opening day is up 82 percent on Deathly Hallows Part 1and 49 percent on Half-Blood Prince. The average 3D share was 65 percent.
Friday Update: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 added another $37.6 million from 43 territories yesterday for a two-day total of $82.5 million. It's currently tracking ahead of Half-Blood Prince by 42 percent and Deathly Hallows Part 1 by 39 percent, and its 3D share decreased a bit to 61 percent. The movie opens in the U.K., Japan, Brazil, Mexico, Spain and many more territories today.
Saturday Update: On top of its record-setting domestic opening day, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 also had another huge day overseas. The movie added an estimated $75 million from 59 territories to bring its international total to $157.5 million. It set opening day records in the United Kingdom and Mexico with $14.8 million and $6.1 million, respectively, and also established new Harry Potter records in Japan ($5.7 million), Brazil ($4.4 million), Spain ($3.3 million) and Poland ($1.25 million). Its highest-grossing territory to date is Australia, where it has earned $16.6 million in three days.
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