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Thursday
16Jul2009

Box Office - 'Harry Potter' Opens With $58 Million

DateThursday, July 16, 2009 at 9:12AM
Debuting strongly, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince seems poised to breeze past $150 million in its first five days of release. We told you yesterday about the record-breaking $22.2 million in midnight ticket sales, and now the one-day totals are in: $58.4 million. That's a little less than Transformers but much better than any other film in the series.

Historically, if that number holds, it will be the fourth best opening day ever, behind The Dark Knight, Transformers, and Spider-Man 3. The third Pirates had the record until 2007 (albeit only for about ten months) with a $55.8 million opening day.

Our five-day prediction for Half-Blood Prince, published yesterday, was $185 million. Kind of tough to be incredibly accurate with those kinds of numbers; missing a prediction for a $40 million weekend by 10% still puts you at $36 million; for $185 million, you're looking at $166.5 million. Quite a difference. Even if we are ten percent off, that would still give Potter a franchise record and still be good enough for sixth place on the five-day charts.

More than likely, though, this should finish the frame as the number three movie on that list. Kind of hard to see how great reviews, the Potter fan base and $60 million in the bank will keep this from making another $110 million in four days. Did I mention the complete lack of competition? Well, there's that, too.

If this follows the Transformers path, we should see a big drop today and a rebound on Friday and Saturday. That drop is almost mandatory, because the anticipation was so great for the Wednesday opening. But, like Transformers and unlike The Dark Knight, a giant Wednesday opening basically gives Potter two opening days. The hardcore fans saw it yesterday, and a big percentage the general moviegoing audience - the people who don't go during the week because of work, school, and family commitments - will try to check it out on Friday.

The film is more than likely done breaking records, except for possibly within its own franchise, but it's an impressive start nevertheless.

AuthorColin Boyd | | in , | Print ArticlePrint Article | | CommentPost a Comment |

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