It is nearly impossible to overstate the enormity of the momentous box office achievement that took place this weekend. Starting at midnight Thursday, Warner Bros. unleashed Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 on the world. A decade in the making, the movie event of the summer marks the end of an era; as such it sparked a massive ticket buying frenzy at movie theaters around the world. The final installment of the biggest movie franchise of all-time broke numerous records including:
BIGGEST OPENING WEEKEND EVER ($168.55m)
BIGGEST SINGLE DAY EVER ($92.1m)
BIGGEST MIDNIGHT GROSS EVER ($43.5m)
IMAX RECORDS - $15.5m Domestically & $23.5m Globally!
As fueled by the franchise first of 3-D and the ever-present and essential IMAX boost, the potential for record-breaking midnight screenings that will ignite one of the biggest opening day and debut weekend grosses in history is in the cards as Harry casts his spell over the box office.
Note: Potter 7 propelled the industry to its largest 3-day non holiday weekend with around $263 million. The prior record was 7/18/08 for $260.5m which was the weekend The Dark Knight opened. (The largest 3-day holiday weekend ever was a Xmas 2009 with $270.2m.)
Paramount’s Transformers: Dark of the Moon broke Fourth-of-July records and held the number one spot for two consecutive weekends worldwide. In its third weekend a second place finish with a gross of $21.25 million was the result for Optimus Prime and his heavy metal friends. Having earned $761 million in worldwide revenue after just three weekends in release, the film has become the biggest hit of the year thus far in North America and the first film released in 2011 to cross the $300 million mark at the domestic box office.
Warner Bros.’ Horrible Bosses featuring the disgruntled trio of Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis gets a third place finish in weekend number two with $17.6 million and crosses the $60 million mark in the process. The R-rated comedy features great supporting turns by both Jennifer Aniston and Colin Farrell.
Kevin James in Sony’s PG-rated kid friendly romp Zookeeper in its second weekend snared fourth place with $12.3 million and will finish the weekend with $40 million plus in total North American revenues. The film opened last weekend internationally in seventh place and drew $7.5 million.
Fifth and sixth place saw two Disney animated films vying for attention as Disney/Pixar’s Cars 2 raced side by side with newcomer Winnie the Pooh for a fourth weekend performance of $8.3 million. The sequel to 2006’s Cars the film has earned $311.9 million globally to date.
The latest big screen version of Winnie the Pooh offered a perfect G-rated alternative for younger kids this weekend taking in $8 million for a sixth place debut.
Summer revenue moved ahead of last year by 1% on the back of the amazing performance of the industry as a whole this weekend.
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