âHarry Potterâ makes box-office magic
The eighth âHarry Potterâ film flew into theaters this weekend and cast a spell over fans worldwide, as the final movie about the boy wizard had the highest-grossing opening of all time at the domestic and international box office.
âHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallows â Part 2â conjured an unprecedented $168.6 million in the U.S. and Canada in just three days, whizzing past the $158.4-million record set by 2008âs âThe Dark Knight,â according to an estimate by distributor Warner Bros. The movie also had the biggest international debut ever, grossing a magical $307 million overseas in 59 foreign countries.
The last installment in the massively popular franchise began breaking domestic box-office records only hours after it opened Friday â selling more tickets during post-midnight screenings than any other movie in history and then passing the milestone for highest single-day-gross with $92.1 million. The movie went on to gross far more than any âHarry Potterâ film has on its first weekend in theaters. âHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallows â Part 1,â released last November, previously held that record with $125 million in ticket sales upon its debut.
Abroad, the film topped the $236-million opening of âHarry Potter and the Half-Blood Princeâ by 30%. Not surprisingly, the movie performed best in England, where author J.K. Rowling and the filmâs major stars are from, collecting $36.6 million. The movie also raked in a big number of ticket sales in Australia, Germany and France. It will not open in China until next month.
But just how big can the numbers get? Did the franchiseâs die-hard fans all rush out to see the final âPotterâ movie on its first weekend, or will they continue to show up in the coming weeks for repeat viewings? âDeathly Hallows â Part 1â grossed a powerful $955 million worldwide in 2010, and Dan Fellman, president of domestic distribution for Warner Bros., said he thinks the last filmâs momentum will propel it past $1 billion at the global box office.
âWe had the most successful franchise in the history of the motion picture business, and we had a huge fan base. We also got fantastic reviews,â Fellman said. âThat all enables us to expand our footprint. We are going to be around for a long time.â
Those who saw the film loved it, giving it an average grade of A, according to market research film CinemaScore. âDeathly Hallows â Part 2,â also the best-reviewed film of the series, appealed to a broad audience, though the crowd was somewhat more female (54%) than male (46%). Folks of all ages saw the movie: 28% of the crowd was under 18, while 20% was between ages 45 and 49. The film was also the first in the franchise to be released entirely in 3-D, and about 43% of the audience watched it in that format.
âAvatar,â the highest-grossing film in the history of the box office, grossed $2.8 billion worldwide in 2009 â a record âDeathly Hallows â Part 2â likely wonât come close to touching. The majority of the audience who saw the James Cameron movie watched it in 3-D, but âPotterâ fans do not appear to be as eager to purchase a pricier ticket to do the same.
âTo expect this âPotterâ movie to do âAvatarâ numbers isnât realistic when none of the other âPotterâ films have done over a billion dollars worldwide,â said Paul Dergarabedian, president of the box-office division for Hollywood.com. âCertainly this is going to be the âPotterâ film that gets over a billion dollars. And only eight films have ever earned over a billion dollars at the worldwide box office.â
The final âPotter,â Dergarabedian believes, does have a viable shot at becoming the third-highest-grossing film of all time, behind âAvatarâ and âTitanic,â which made $1.8 billion globally in 1997. Unlike those movies, however, âHarry Potterâ has a host of ancillary marketing opportunities, including theme parks and video games, that will continue to make money for Warner Bros. outside of the film franchise for years to come.
Interestingly, a surprising share of the U.S. business for âDeathly Hallows â Part 2â came from Salt Lake City. Utahâs Megaplex Theaters at Jordan Commons sold more tickets to the final âPotterâ film than any other theater in the country with $360,400 in receipts. Theaters in New York and San Francisco followed behind, but the fifth-highest-grossing theater was also in Salt Lake.
At Jordan Commons, all 17 of the theaterâs screens were playing âHarry Potterâ at midnight as Friday began. Tickets for the film were selling out so rapidly online in the weeks leading to the filmâs debut that the theater decided to show the movie virtually nonstop for the first 24 hours of its release. The cinema also ran marathon screenings of previous âHarry Potterâ installments before âDeathly Hallows â Part 2â premiered and sold VIP ticket packages that allowed certain patrons to sip on âbutterbeerâ and participate in costume contests.
The headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, of course, is in Salt Lake City. And Jeffrey Roy Holland, a Mormon senior apostle, appears to be a âPotterâ supporter, having referred to Rowlingâs books in public addresses.
âUtah clearly has some avid âHarry Potterâ fans,â said Jeff Whipple, marketing director for Megaplex theaters. âWe hear from a lot of families that were reading the books together, and we had multiple generations come out to see the film together. The LDS church embraces that kind of activity.â
Meanwhile, the only film brave enough to open opposite the âHarry Potterâ juggernaut this weekend was âWinnie the Pooh,â Disneyâs attempt to reintroduce the honey-loving bear to modern audiences. But the hand-drawn animated film, rated G, mustered only $8 million in ticket sales.
Those who saw âPoohâ â an audience dominated by families, which accounted for 85% of those who saw the movie â liked it, giving it an average grade of A-. Disney, which spent about $30 million to produce the movie, can only hope that the strong grade will help âPoohâ hold up well in the coming weeks as the âHarry Potterâ buzz begins to fade.
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