It was a safe assumption that David Yates'
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part
2 would be a hugely successful phenomenon. After all, this is the eighth and final film in
the beloved franchise that a generation grew up both reading and watching. But I'm not sure
anyone could have predicted how massive this weekend was going to be. It turned out to
shatter some all-time records.
So, what records did the boy wizard break? Well, with $168.5 million this weekend, it now
claims the biggest three-day weekend ever (besting
The Dark Knight's $158.4 back
in 2008), which isn't too shabby. Additionally, it now holds the best single-day box office,
since on Friday it racked up $92.1 million (including a colossal $43.5 million from midnight
sales – in New York all of the midnight shows were sold out and many theaters were doing 6
am showings). Also, with $476 million worldwide, it's the biggest global opening of any movie
ever. Truly,
Harry Potter is going out with a bang.
From my perspective, too, things should continue solidly for a while – many diehard fans of
the franchise didn't want to risk the madness of opening weekend, so they'll be back for more
next weekend. (This should happen for a few weeks.) And next week's films are ultimately
more niche-y than the kind of four-quadrant crowd pleaser that
Harry Potter is -
Captain
America is a second-tier superhero and if people weren't crazy about
X-Men:
First Class's swinging 60s period setting, then they might not get behind the World War
II-era
Captain America and
Friends with Benefits is an R-rated comedy that everyone
already feels like they've seen before (hello
No Strings Attached!) So while this may
be the last big screen outing for
Harry Potter, his reign is far from over!
A pair of comedies showed impressive hold over the weekend – at #3,
Horrible Bosses
dropped just 39% for a weekend total of $17.6 million. Clearly, not as many people as I
would have expected have been using the phrase "painfully mediocre" to describe the film.
Speaking of which,
Zookeeper, which seemed to be a bit of a bust last week, stayed strong
dropping only 38% for another $12.3 million. While it might not be a blockbuster (and quite
frankly I'd rather rub shards of broken glass in my eyes than sit through it), it could still
qualify as a "sleeper hit" when all is said and done, and not just because parents taking their
kids sleep through it. These are the jokes.
On a much gloomier, Eeyore-like note, Disney's sumptuous
Winnie the Pooh debuted way down at #6
with $8 million (that's less than
Cars
2 grabbed a month into its release). This is a shame because the movie is really,
really, really good. One of the issues with this jam-packed summer season, with multiple, big-
name titles opening every week, is that it doesn't give something like
Winnie the
Pooh the chance to survive. Say families will have already seen
Harry Potter or
Cars 2 in a few weeks, and they want something new – will
Winnie the Pooh
even still be in theaters? It's sad to think about.
On a much more positive note, however,
Harry Potter wasn't the only one setting
records this weekend! With another $1.8 million accumulated, Woody Allen's
Midnight in Paris
has officially become the auteur's highest grossing movie EVER. Way to go Woody!
- #1 – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 (Warner Bros) $168 million
- #2 - Transformers: Dark of the Moon (Paramount) - $21.2 million
- #3 - Horrible Bosses (Warner Bros) - $17.6 million
- #4 - Zookeeper (Sony) - $12.3 million
- #5 - Cars 2 (Disney) - $8.3 million
- #6 - Winnie the Pooh (Disney) - $8 million
- #7 - Bad Teacher (Sony) - $5.2 million
- #8 - Larry Crowne (Universal) - $2.5 million
- #9 - Super 8 (Paramount) - $1.9 million
- #10 - Midnight in Paris (Sony) - $1.8 million