HARRY POTTER RULES THE WORLD

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 may have set no opening-weekend records domestically (with the arguable exception of its earning more on IMAX screens than any previous film), but it shattered records in some foreign markets, where it opened on the same day that it did in the U.S. The Warner Bros. film earned $29.1 million in the U.K., breaking the previous record for a three-day opening of $24.4 million set by the James Bond flick, Quantum of Solace, in 2008. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which earned $23.7 million when it opened in 2005, had held the record for the biggest opening of a Harry Potter film in the U.K. Deathly Hallows knocked every competing film out of the box. Indeed, some British megaplexes devoted virtually all their screens to the film, staggering screenings every hour. As a result Deathly Hallows accounted for 83 percent of the total gross for all films. Overall, Deathly Hallows piled up a massive $205 million in 54 countries overseas (versus $125 million domestically). Warner Bros. declined to speculate about what the film might have grossed had it been converted into 3D, as originally planned. It’s impossible to say what the loss of 3D is when the movie has opened to such enormous numbers in 2D,” Veronika Kwan-Rubinek, head of international distribution for Warners told Daily Variety. “The $205 million opening is a staggering number in any format.”

The top ten films over the weekend, according to final figures compiled by Box Office Mojo (figures in parentheses represent total gross to date):
1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I, Warner Bros., $125,017,372, (New); 2. Megamind, Paramount/DreamWorks Animation, $16,012,831, 3 Wks. ($109,313,429); 3. Unstoppable, 20th Century Fox, $13,005,855, 2 Wks. ($41,867,769); 4. Due Date, Warner Bros., $8,912,182, 3 Wks. ($72,431,594); 5. The Next Three Days, Lionsgate, $6,542,779, (New); 6. Morning Glory, Paramount, $5,200,233, 2 Wks. ($19,823,136); 7. Skyline, Universal, $3,560,985, 2 Wks. ($17,772,760); 8. RED, Summit Entertainment, $2,483,043, 6 Wks. ($83,589,965); 9. For Colored Girls, Lionsgate, $2,299,956, 3 Wks. ($34,439,653); 10. Fair Game, Summit Entertainment, $1,455,819, 3 Wks. ($3,724,546).