The penultimate chapter in the Harry Potter saga set a series record at the box office its opening weekend, taking in an estimate $125 million.
Even the domestic haul of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 was outstripped by the film’s foreign take of $205 million, giving the film a one-weekend worldwide total of $330 million. The film outperformed Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which opened in 2005 with a $102 million domestic opening.
DreamWorks Animation’s MegaMind held up well its third weekend of release, taking second place for the weekend with $16 million. That brings the movie to a domestic haul of $109 million and a worldwide total of $136 million.
Here’s the top five, nicked from BoxOfficeMojo.com:
Rank. Movie Title (Distributor) Weekend Gross | Theaters | Total Gross | Week #
1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (Warner Bros.) $125.1 million | 4,125 | $125.1 million | 1
2. Megamind (Paramount (DreamWorks)) $16.2 million | 3,779 | $109.5 million | 3
3. Unstoppable (Fox) $13.1 million | 3,209 | $42.0 million | 2
4. Due Date (Warner Bros.) $9.2 million | 3,229 | $72.7 million | 3
5. The Next Three Days (Lionsgate) $6.8 million | 2,564 | $6.8 million | 1
With Americans heading into the four-day Thanksgiving holiday weekend, Potter will have a challenger for the crown as soon as Wednesday, when Disney’s 50th animated feature film, Tangled, opens wide on about 3,500 cinemas.
