It was widely predicted that the latest installment of the Harry Potter franchise would upset the records set by the two most recent Twilight films. However the results fell short of what was widely thought to be a shoe-in for Harry Potter to overtake New Moon. Most industry blogs were divided 50/50 on whether it would overtake Eclipse. In the end, Harry Potter didn’t overtake either of them in midnight sales(midnight sales cover tickets sold midnight until circa 10:00am).
According to MarketWatch:
““Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I” made $24 million in its debut during the wee hours Friday, enough to pull into third place among films with midnight screenings, according to figures from box-office tracker Hollywood.com.
“Deathly Hallows” fell behind two films in the “Twilight” series. “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” still is tops with its $30 million-plus debut earlier this year on June 30. And “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” comes in second at $26.3 million for its Nov. 20, 2009 midnight release.”
Regardless of the midnight showing results, Harry Potter will undoubtedly be in the top ten films this year and in all likelihood make the top five. The franchise is also set to overtake Star Wars as the most successful film franchise at the box office. Also in fairness to the Potter chain, Eclipse opened at roughly 4,400 theaters opening day while Potter opened at roughly 4,100. (Stats via Box Office Mojo).
What will really be interesting is if Harry Potter can do two things: 1) break the $300,000,000 mark, something it has only done twice 2) beat the $317,575,550 benchmark set back in 2001 with the first Harry Potter movie. To overtake Eclipse in total sales, Harry Potter needs to come in at over $300,531,751 by the time it finishes its run.
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