14 DAY TRIAL // They don’t call it the end of an era for nothing. The final installment in the “Harry Potter” franchise, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2,” broke nearly all box office records ever in movie history on its first weekend.
Arriving in theaters in various territories on Friday night, “Harry Potter” left competition in the dust (at a distance of many miles away), taking down the previous records for best opening on Friday and best overall weekend gross in the US.
In other countries too, the film took down record after record – and critics note that this is just its first weekend, it could go on to set other records as well.
As per Deadline, “Harry Potter” ended the weekend with $168.5 million in ticket sales in the US, which means it’s officially the biggest opening ever in the territory.
“Friday crushed the record for best single-day box office, best Friday box office. But the wizards didn’t break the Saturday record of $51.3M set by 2D-only Spider-Man 3 on its second day of release,” the e-zine notes.
“However, HP’s franchise finale definitely shattered the biggest 3-day weekend ever with $168.5M to beat the other gold standard 2D-only Dark Knight’s $158.4M. And the good news just kept coming. Part 2 scored an overall CinemaScore of ‘A’,” Deadline further says.
In other words, this is not just a film that did well with audiences (as many with impressive sales are), but it also fared very well with critics, who have deemed it the perfect way to end a superb franchise.
The other movies running at the US box office pale in comparison with the final chapter in the wizard saga, but they still pulled in big bucks.
“Transformers: Dark of the Moon,” Michael Bay’s third and last take on the autobots story, made another $21.3 million proving that, no matter how many negative reviews critics pen, fans will remain loyal to the franchise.
The comedy “Horrible Bosses” made $17.6 million domestically, while “Zookeeper” followed suit with $12.3 million; “Cars 2” is next with $8.3 million, while “Winnie the Pooh” brought another $8.0 million in ticket sales.