‘Harry Potter’ rakes in $24 million from midnight shows, falls short of ‘Twilight’

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The boy wizard couldn’t beat the teen vampires.

‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows -- Part 1’ sold $24 million in tickets in its debut late Thursday night with shows that started at or soon after midnight, according to an estimate from Warner Bros.

That’s $1.8 million more than the last movie in the series, ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,’ brought in from midnight shows when it debuted in June 2009.

It’s well short, however, of the record set in July by ‘The Twilight Saga: Eclipse,’ which grossed more than $30 million during its late-night launch.

In fact, ‘Deathly Hallows’ is the No. 3 midnight opening of recent years, also coming up behind November 2009’s ‘The Twilight Saga: New Moon,’ which kicked off its opening weekend with $26.3 million.

‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows -- Part 1’ is on track for a huge opening weekend of more than $100 million. Now that it didn’t break any records in midnight shows, however, it’s less likely the picture will top the $158-million debut in 2008 of ‘The Dark Knight,’ which stands as the biggest opening weekend ever, not accounting for ticket price inflation.

-- Ben Fritz