The sixth installment of the wildly successful Harry Potter series conjured up an estimated $79.5 million for its opening weekend at the box office, putting its first five days at an impressive $159.7 million–a franchise best. But even with its family-friendly PG rating, Harry left some room out there for other kid-oriented fare, specifically Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, which in its third weekend dropped a scant 36% to $17.7 million. Its total gross now stands at $152 million. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen also held on remarkably well, falling a solid 43% to $13.7 million. The Michael Bay-directed juggernaut’s four-week gross has now reached $363 million.
There was little room — or much love, for that matter — for Sacha Baron Cohen’s Bruno. Unlike Borat, which in its second weekend increased 7% when the studio added a thousand theaters, Bruno fell like a stone, losing 73% of its first weekend value for an additional $8 million. Its 10-day gross now stands at $49.5 million. Rather, audiences chose to stick with the comedy The Hangover, which in its seventh weekend in theaters fell only 16% to $8 million. One of summer’s most unlikely success stories now boasts a total take of $235 million.
Fox Searchlight seems to have another hit on their hands with the indie romantic comedy (500) Days of Summer starring Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Opening in a limited 27 theaters, the film grossed $837,588 for a per-screen average of $31,022. Between Harry, Transformers and The Hangover, 2009’s summer is up close to 4% from last year, even though this weekend was off a huge 39% due to comparisons to last year’s The Dark Knight which opened to the biggest opening ever last year at this time.
More from EW:
Box Office Chart: Weekend’s top 10
Harry Potter: Are you a trivia whiz?
Harry Potter: 8 EW exclusive cast pics
Harry Potter: Just another teen movie?
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince poll: Too much romance?
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Change is not good
Comic-Con: 17 sneak peeks
Comments (1-15) of 29 Add your comment
Yay for Harry
I do hope it beats Transformers. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against it …
it already after one weekend has over 300million worldwide. It deserves every bit of it. Wonderful movie. Im seeing it again soon as I get the chance.
Harrry Potter and the Half Blood Prince made 396 million worldwide in just five days.
it was stupid just a bunch of teens kissing then dumbledore dies nothing like the book no fight seen no action i was bored allmost walk out if the dictor makes the other movies then ill most likely stay home
James… thanks for the insight. Perhaps it *would* be best for you to stay home. Then you could use that time to learn how to construct complete, error-free sentences.
Bruno = Crapo !!!! I love that it dropped that much.
Congratulation Harry Potter fans … and this is coming from a Twilight fan. It is great to see another great book series doing awesome at the box office. But we will see you in November. LOL (tongue in cheek in case some of you are taking the competition way too seriously)
Bye bye, BRUNO! Es SUCKS!
And to think, Owen and most of the critics tried to convince us that this was cutting-edge comedy and the few fans said the rest of us just didn’t “get” the one joke and staged scenes.
The people have spoken. Go home, Sacha, and quit trying to stretch 15-second skit characters into overwrought, desperate-to-be-shocking full-length movies. Small doses, eh G?
go see 500 days of summer if youve seen harry potter
beautiful film
Transformers rule this summer…..bring on more action packed 2 and half hour filled of great fun!!!!
Harry Potter 6 is gonna break that Billion dollar wall like a tank. Its made over 400M its opening weekend worldwide. Suck on that Dark Knight
HP 6 is amazing. Its the best of the lot. Well acted, well shot and just a solidly made movie from start to finish.
I’ve never understood why the numbers are released so early on Sunday when there’s still people potentially going to see a movie Sunday morning, Sunday afternoon, Sunday night…Why not wait and count those too, and release the numbers on Monday?? It makes no sense to me…
Harry Potter deserves ALL THE MONEY!!! Hell YA!
HP,400 million? Maybe in your dreams.