Geo Entertainment

Harry Potter finale shatters US box office record

LOS ANGELES: The final Harry Potter movie shattered the record for an opening weekend at the North American box office, industry trackers said. Muggles -- non-magical people -- of all ages handed over a collective $169.2 million as they flocked to see "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows -- Part 2," the eighth and final film about the boy wizard. The haul is $11 million more the previous opening weekend record of $158-million set in 2008 by the Batman film "The Dark Knight." "DH-2" had already raked in a record $92.1 million in opening day sales, smashing the previous record held by "The Twilight Saga: New Moon," which took $72.7 million in 2009. In the finale to one of the most successful film franchises of all time, released in both 2D and 3D versions, Harry takes on evil Lord Voldemort in a climactic showdown at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It is the second of two movies based on the final book in the wildly successful coming-of-age Potter series by British author J. K. Rowling. "DH-2" covers the final third of the last Potter book and is a fast-paced adventure that follows the scene set in "DH-1." It is also the best-reviewed movie of the series. Dan Fellman, president of domestic distribution for Warner Bros., told the LA Times newspaper he believes "DH-2" will break the $1 billion mark in worldwide ticket sales. The series on the adventures of the orphan who discovers he has magical powers are a global phenomenon, with the books available in 69 languages. More than 400 million copies of the books have been sold since Rowling, a one-time struggling single-mother on welfare, published the first instalment in 1997. Rowling has a personal net worth of a billion dollars, reportedly making her richer than the British queen. The Harry Potter brand alone has an estimated worth of some 15 billion dollars. The first Harry Potter film was released in 2001 and the first seven movies earned over 6.4 billion dollars (4.4 billion euros) worldwide, making multi-millionaires out of young stars Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint. (AFP)