There was little doubt that Harry Potter And The Deatly Hallows – Part 2 was going to have a massive opening, but the huge anticipation hasn’t just ensured a lot of money was made, but also that numerous record were broken. The film started rewriting the record books right from its midnight showings in the US, which scored $42 million, more than any other movie had taken just from late night screening.
Once the first full day had come to a close, the film had made $92.1 million, the biggest single day ever in North America, $20 million ahead on the previous record holder, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. Only 21 movies have made more than that in their entire first weekend, so it was already quite clear then that Deathly Hallows was going to do something special.
Over it’s first three days, it’s now estimated the movie has taken $168.5 million. That’s the largest opening weekend ever, and $10 million ahead of The Dark Knight, which held the record up until now. The movie has pretty much completely rewritten the record books, and it’ll be interesting to see whether it can keep going, or whether like The Twilight Saga, after the massive opening the drop-off in box office will be dramatic.
Worldwide the movie took a gargantuan $475.6 million,, becoming the first movie to ever take $400 million by the end of its first weekend. It passed the previous record holder, another Potter flick, Half Blood Prince, which made $394 million when it opened. Many now expect the film to cross the $1 billion mark, becoming the first of the Potter movies to do so. Astonishingly, the film made over $130 million more outside the US than any other film has before by the end of its opening weekend.
The only other opener in the US top 10 was Winnie The Pooh, which took $8 million for sixth spot on the chart, about what Disney has expected.
However it wasn’t just Harry Potter’s weekend, it was also Woody Allen’s, as Midngiht In Paris added another $1.8 million to become Woody’s biggest grossing movie ever in the US. It overtook his previous highest earner, Hannah And Her Sisters (although taking inflation into account, the likes of that and Annie Hall still took more).
Take a look below for the US Box Office Top 10 for the weekend of July 15th-17th.
| Rank | Title | Weekend Gross (millions) | Total Gross to date (millions) |
| 1 | Harry Potter And The Deathy Hallows – Part 2 | $168.5 | $168.5 |
| 2 | Transformers: Dark Of The Moon | $21.2 | $302.8 |
| 3 | Horrible Bosses | $17.6 | $60.0 |
| 4 | Zookepper | $12.4 | $42.3 |
| 5 | Cars 2 | $8.3 | $165.3 |
| 6 | Winnie The Pooh | $8.0 | $8.0 |
| 7 | Bad Teacher | $5.2 | $88.5 |
| 8 | Larry Crowne | $2.5 | $31.6 |
| 9 | Super 8 | $1.9 | $122.2 |
| 10 | Midnight In Paris | $1.8 | $41.7 |