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business news"Harry Potter" Has Magical Debut
Box office results for the weekend of July 15-17, 2011.
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Overall the Top 10 films generated an estimated $247.7 million, up a ginormous 31.7% from last year when Warner Bros. Inception ($62.8 million opening) led the overall Top 10 to a total of $169.2 million. The amount collected by the Top 10 is the fifth biggest amount in box office history. The box office will be up a significant amount this weekend in comparison to last year when Sony’s (SNE) Salt opened with $36 million leading the overall Top 10 to a $150.7 million total. Deathly Hallows Part II will drop massively this weekend (probably about 65%) but should still pull in about $60 million as will this week’s new release Captain America: The First Avenger from Marvel (MVL) and Paramount (VIA). Sony’s R-Rated comedy Friends With Benefits should also have a solid debut, leaving the possibility that the Top 10 could generate approximately $190 million, give or take $10 million. According to estimates, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II generated a magical $168.6 million this weekend beating The Dark Knight’s record of $158.4 million. The way fans are embracing the final film in the beloved Harry Potter series is awe inspiring and to be honest, I can’t think of a more worthy film to finally topple The Dark Knight’s opening record. I truly didn’t think Potter would be able to beat Batman, but as a huge fan of both the books and the films, I’m more than happy that I was wrong. The Dark Knight of course went on gross a total of $533.3 million due to amazing word of mouth and strong legs, and although the latest and final Potter film is extremely well-reviewed and the word of mouth has been positive, it likely has no chance of making that much money. Usually the Potter films top out at about $300 million but the final chapter may inspire fans to come out for repeat viewings before the boy wizard disappears from theaters forever making a total of $400 million a possibility.
Deathly Hallows Part II started off by grossing an estimated $43.5 million from late Thursday night showings for a one day opening total of about $92.1 million. These figures easily eclipse the opening day record set by The Twilight Saga: New Moon which was $72.7 million. The third film in the series, Eclipse, was the previous benchmark for midnight gross at $30 million. Of course Twilight has its own two part finale hitting theaters and it may take these records back. The film fell a big 54% on Saturday to collect another $42.9 million according to estimates. With so much of Friday’s earnings coming from Thursday midnight showings, a big second day drop was in the cards. The film leveled off Sunday dropping only about 22%.
The final installment in the beloved franchise also broke records internationally. Opening in many territories on Wednesday, the film has collected an estimated $307 million internationally, besting the record set at the start of the summer by Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides which collected $260.4 million. The global total for the film is approximately $475.6 million, the highest worldwide debut in box office history beating the $394 million made by the sixth film in the series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
Disney’s traditionally animated Winnie the Pooh had a mild debut collecting only $8 million. This was expected as most kids over the age of five don’t really care to see or watch Winnie and friends anymore and the last few films that came out of the 100 Acre Forest didn’t exactly do very well either. With no new competition arriving for the toddler audience this weekend, Pooh may experience only a soft decline, but the weekend after, Pooh and friends are going to have the blues thanks to the arrival of The Smurfs.
To see how the rest of the top 10 performed, check out the chart below.
Debuting titles are in red.
My overall Top 10 prediction was $226.4M
My accuracy was 91.4%
Editor's Note: Bill Bonfanti writes daily as Box Office Analyst and Film Critic for FilmGo.net. Visit FilmGo to view the latest box office news, movie trailers and more.
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