The number to beat is $142,839,137, which was set by The Twilight Saga: New Moon back in November 2009. Yesterday Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 took its first step in an attempt to break New Moon‘s November box-office record with a reported $61.1 million on Friday. This number includes the film’s $24 million from midnight screenings, which means the flick brought in about $37.1 million during the day and into the night.
What does this mean for the three-day? Well, if you take those numbers and spread them out over the weekend you get $135.3 million, but a film like this has the potential to do bigger business on Saturday and Sunday than it did on Friday so $140 million and even the record $142.8 million isn’t out of the question. My guess is that it will fall a little short of New Moon‘s number with something like $138 million, but it will be interesting to see if it can pull it off. I, for one, would be happy to see it happen.
As for the weekend’s only other new wide release, Lionsgate’s The Next Three Days brought in $2.5 million and lands in fifth place, likely to make about $6.5 million for the weekend.
Looking at last week’s new release, Unstoppable brought in $4.1 million on Friday, looking at a $12 million weekend. This would signify a 47% drop, which isn’t too bad, but obviously shows that film is going to come up a loser when you take into consideration the $100 million budget and the $44 million it will have made in its first two weeks.
Dreamworks’ Megamind continues to do well, however, bringing in $4.5 million on Friday and looking at a $15-16 million weekend. This would make for a 45% drop in the film’s third week and bring it’s total to just shy of $110 million. It’s still got some work to do considering its $130 million budget, but overseas ticket sales and a few more decent weekends should make things work.
The other film to make Friday’s top five is Warner’s Due Date with an estimated $2.9 million, which means we’re looking at something like an $8.5 million weekend and a 45% drop from last week. This film has dropped rather significantly in both of its follow-up weekends, but it will hit around $72 million by Sunday, which isn’t too shabby considering the $47.1 million it has already taken in foreign ticket sales.
If you’re wondering about Fox Searchlight’s 127 Hours, Danny Boyle’s film expanded to 108 theaters this weekend and brought in an estimated $258,000 on Friday. It will likely finish the weekend out of the top ten with approximately $800,000 for a $7,407 per theater average.
Other than that, here’s the complete top ten from Friday and I’ll be back here Sunday morning with a complete recap. Will we talking about a record-breaking weekend for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 or will New Moon remain at the top of the November box-office? One thing’s for certain, Harry Potter will beat Iron Man 2‘s $128 million opening to become the largest opening of 2010 so that’s saying something.
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 – $61.1 million
- Unstoppable – $4 million
- Megamind – $3.7 million
- Due Date – $2.9 million
- The Next Three Days – $2.2 million
- Morning Glory – $1.6 million
- Skyline – $1 million
- Red – $720,000
- For Colored Girls – $675,000
- Fair Game – $375,000
