There have got to be a lot of tired little Muggles out there as many of you were obviously up late checking out Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, which took in a massive, record-breaking haul of $43.5 million from 3,800 midnight showings. I know former RopeofSilicon writer David Frank caught Part 1 and Part 2 in a double feature and texted me late last night saying, “Yeah, that nailed the landing.” Then he told me he got only three hours of sleep. The price we pay for entertainment eh?
The previous midnight record holder was The Twilight Saga: Eclipse with what now looks like a paltry $30 million.
The film now moves into 4,300 theaters (3,000 of them showing the film in 3D) for the weekend where it is expected to gross more than $150 million in its opening three days as it hopes to take down previous three-day record holder The Dark Knight, which earned $158.4 million back in 2008 from 4,366 theaters. BoxOfficeMojo gives us this following paragraph letting us know how well it is already doing internationally:
The movie set opening day records in Australia ($7.5 million), Italy ($4.6 million), Sweden ($2.1 million), Norway ($1.8 million), the Netherlands ($1.7 million), Denmark ($1.6 million), Belgium ($1.4 million) and Finland ($749,000). It also claimed the Wednesday opening record in France ($7.1 million), the preview record in Germany ($5.3 million), and the Warner Bros. opening day record in Russia ($4.1 million).
The previous best opening weekend for a Harry Potter film domestically was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, which took in $125 million last November. That film, however, wasn’t in 3D as Warner Bros. couldn’t get the conversion ready in time, but Part 2 will certainly be taking advantage of the higher ticket prices.
I must admit, these are fun numbers to report.
