Well, this is Warner Brother's biggest cash cow, it's now or never i guess. Let's go out with a bang. It's everywhere online as well, every website has a 7.2 banner.

The Top 10 for Warners in the Domestic Market.....LOL

1 The Dark Knight WB $533,345,358 7/18/08
2 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone WB $317,575,550 11/16/01
3 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince WB $301,959,197 7/15/09
4 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 WB $295,001,070 11/19/10
5 Inception WB $292,576,195 7/16/10
6 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix WB $292,004,738 7/11/07
7 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire WB $290,013,036 11/18/05
8 The Matrix Reloaded WB $281,576,461 5/15/03
9 The Hangover WB $277,322,503 6/5/09
10 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets WB $261,988,482 11/15/02

With just over 6 hrs to go until the first midnights, all Premiere/Directors Cinema sessions are pretty much sold out for the next two days.

At this stage, tomorrow's matinees (opening day) are tracking at around 20% FULL, obviously there will be a late rush. Audiences probably are aware that there's going to be a showing every half and hour; thus, probably no need to buy well in advance.

Harry Potter 7: Deahtly Hallows Part 1

$954,501,070



Domestic = $295,001,070 (#38 All-Time, #5 in 2010 and #3 for the franchise)
International = $659,500,000 (#7 All-Time, #2 in 2010 and #1 for the franchise)
Worldwide = $954,501,070 (#11 All-Time, #3 in 2010 and #2 for the franchise)

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Highlights:
* Has the largest opening day in the domestic market yet for a Harry Potter release. While it didn't break midnight records it did claim the IMAX midnight record.
* Largest Potter release overseas; defeating HP1 last year
* It's first three days in UK are the largest single days of all-time.

---

Rotten Tomatoes = 79%
Metacritic = 65 / 100
Academy Awards = 0 Wins out of 2 Nominations
BAFTAs = 0 Wins out of 2 Nominations

---

Top 5 International Markets:
1) United Kingdom = $84,500,000
2) Japan = $83,000,000
3) Germany = $61,500,000
4) France = $51,500,000
5) Australia = $41,000,000

Might as well put this here too.


Completely unprecedented and insanely ahead of DH1, and we still have 3 days to go!

Hmm, they didn't mention anything about record breaking?

Does this mean something like Twilight still leads in presales?

Was just reading a promotion mailout from one of the larger cinema chains in Melbourne and they're advertising 2:45am showings for AU$15 each. Normal 3D tickets are AU$23 now.

There's midnight crazy....but then there's also 2:45am crazy...LOL

I'm not sure (I can't find any sources providing a figure on how many sellouts Eclipse had), but for comparison DH1 had 2,200 sold out showings the day before, so this is obviously in a league of its own.

7.1 did mid $20ms in mdinights, this one is so going to blow past $35m. I'm bracing myself for massive opening day figures in a few days time.

Woah. No wonder you guys have such relatively high grosses for a country whose population is nowhere near that of Germany, France and the UK. 3D tickets here cost less than AU$16 (€12), that really adds up.

Well the Australian Dollar has been extremely strong vs. US and several other countries for the past 1-2 years now. This explains why US$ grosses for movies in Australia in general has outstripped markets such as Spain and Italy where back 8-10 years ago, Australia was still behind. Nowadays in terms of US$ gross Australia probably ranks only behind UK, Japan, Germany, France and South Korea out of the traditional ones and of course behind Russia and China.

It's time to say goodbye to the biggest film series of our time....



1) Harry Potter - $6,369,345,142 (7 films to date)
2) James Bond - $5,029,014,110 (22 films to date)
3) Star Wars - $4,279,632,749 (7 films to date)
4) Pirates of the Caribbean - $3,705,514,644* (4 films to date)
5) Shrek - $2,955,807,005 (4 films to date)
6) Lord of the Rings - $2,915,155,189 (3 films to date)
7) Batman - $2,588,156,775 (7 films to date)
8) Spiderman - $2,496,346,518 (3 films to date)
9) Transformers - $2,191,085,708* (3 films to date)
10) Indiana Jones - $1,978,055,564 (4 films to date)

I'm signing off for today (it's now close to 10pm)....can't wait to see early reports starting tomorrow. Have a good time Potter fans...spare a thought for those who won't be able to see it until the weekend NO SPOILERS please!

The following markets are opening today...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1201607/releaseinfo

Australia 13 July 2011
Azerbaijan 13 July 2011
Belgium 13 July 2011
Bosnia and Herzegovina 13 July 2011
Denmark 13 July 2011
Egypt 13 July 2011
Finland 13 July 2011
France 13 July 2011
Germany 13 July 2011
Iceland 13 July 2011
Israel 13 July 2011
Italy 13 July 2011
Netherlands 13 July 2011
Norway 13 July 2011
Russia 13 July 2011
Serbia 13 July 2011 (Belgrade) (premiere) (Sava Centar)
Sweden 13 July 2011
Turkey 13 July 2011

....tomorrow...

Argentina 14 July 2011
Croatia 14 July 2011
Czech Republic 14 July 2011
Georgia 14 July 2011
Greece 14 July 2011
Hong Kong 14 July 2011
Malaysia 14 July 2011
New Zealand 14 July 2011
Peru 14 July 2011
Philippines 14 July 2011
Portugal 14 July 2011
Puerto Rico 14 July 2011
Singapore 14 July 2011
Slovenia 14 July 2011
South Korea 14 July 2011
Taiwan 14 July 2011
Thailand 14 July 2011

.....Friday...

Armenia 15 July 2011
Brazil 15 July 2011
Bulgaria 15 July 2011
Canada 15 July 2011
Colombia 15 July 2011
Estonia 15 July 2011
Hungary 15 July 2011
India 15 July 2011
Ireland 15 July 2011
Japan 15 July 2011
Lithuania 15 July 2011
Paraguay 15 July 2011
Poland 15 July 2011
Romania 15 July 2011
Spain 15 July 2011
UK 15 July 2011
USA 15 July 2011
Uruguay 15 July 2011
Venezuela 15 July 2011

China will certainly exceed $25m total.

I knew i forgotten something.....

Ok, first video footage of its midnight release more than 12 hours ago from across Melbourne and Sydney....

http://media.theage.com.au/news/nationa ... 89498.html

And on a more sadder note, some fans were denied the midnight showing due to technical difficulties. You would've at least thought that they'd checked.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/entertainme ... 6093459877

It's currently almost 1pm on opening day here in Australia.

3D - Most of the 1pm sessions are very close to sold out, many cinemas showing multiple sessions at this time on different theatres. I would say it's at least 80%-90% on average with only the first few rows empty.

2D - Obviously in much smaller theatres (less than half the size) is doing quite well as well with a few sell outs and at least 80% capacity.

This is ferocious pace...

Final 'Harry Potter' movie has already earned $25 mil from advance sales

http://insidemovies.ew.com/2011/07/12/h ... nce-sales/

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows–Part 2 has already collected $25 million domestically from advance ticket sales, according to Variety. The majority of the sales have reportedly been for midnight screenings, giving Deathly Hallows a legitimate shot at beating the $30 million midnight record set last year by The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. The final Harry Potter film will also be aiming its wand at some other box-office milestones, such as the largest opening day (currently The Twilight Saga: New Moon with $72.7 million) and the biggest opening weekend (The Dark Knight with $158.4 million).

Deathly Hallows opens early Friday morning with midnight showings. The 3-D movie also debuts this week in every major foreign market except China (where it premieres Aug. 4), meaning the worldwide-opening record of $394 million (set by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) could also be in danger. Check back with EW.com throughout the weekend for more box-office updates.

===

Most of these should be from midnights, so further confidence that the midnight record will go down....

Variety reveals more...if the article is right, it may not be a slam dunk for the midnight record afterall....though does this probably rule out any shot at $40 midnights...??

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118039792

EXCLUSIVE: The end is near for Harry Potter fans, and if advanced ticket sales are any indication, opening B.O. numbers for "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" will be wicked.

Already, "Part 2" has earned a reported $25 million in advanced domestic ticket sales, the majority of which comes from midnight screenings, according to Warner Bros.

The final Potter pic's early coin suggests the film could match -- if not surpass -- the previous midnight benchmark set by "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse," with $30 million in late-night grosses. (Warners said "Part 2" likely will see a boost in advanced ticket sales before Friday, ending up with an additional $5 million-$6 million.)

According to online ticketing service Fandango, "Part 2" sold out more than 5,000 Stateside showtimes prior to its release.

Warners distribution topper Dan Fellman projected a three-day opening between $130 million-$140 million, but said there's potential for the film to break the best-ever $158 million debut set by "The Dark Knight" in 2008. That depends, however, on how well the film holds from Friday to Saturday -- and whether fans turn out for 3D screenings.

"If 3D is at the 50% level, then the uplift is going to push (the film) into an interesting place," Fellman said.

Concerning the pic's Friday-Saturday drop, Fellman said a 20% drop on Saturday (40% is more typical for frontloaded fan-driven pics) would put "Potter" at the high end of weekend expectations.

Apparently, audience interest for "Part 2" had been steadily increasing over the past few weeks without peaking until just recently, according to bizzers. That's good news for Warners since studios never want a pic to hit its high point too far ahead of its release.

"They've done an excellent job of making sure their campaign peaks at just the right time," said Imax prexy Greg Foster.

Imax will play "Part 2" at all domestic locations but one, along with the vast majority of its international runs -- giving it approximately 425 worldwide runs, a new record for Imax. Pic bows day-and-date this weekend in every major overseas market except China, where the film launches August 4.

What the fuck? Is 5,000 right? That's 2k more than yesterday.

Late rush with some minor adjustments....still no mention that it took the record at fandango....

Studios tend to low ball weekend projections, so I'm thinking that $5-6m is probably similar.. Even though I think this is the first time I've ever seen a studio make advance sales predictions.

Well they obviously know that there's no way it wall open lower than 7.1 with all the midnights buzz and anticipation. studios tend to lowball their advance predictions (or at least after it opens they say they were targeting something lower).

Though this is obviously some confidence from the Warners camp even to state that there's possibility of it breaking the opening weekend record.

Good on them i think....though there's also no way it's going to make lower than $140m 3-Day as per the Warners projection.

It's just over 2pm now, and most of the 1pm sessions ended being sold out....there's a small break now until the 3pm sessions kick in. They're tracking about 75%.

For tonight, it's already selling out most tickets with all 6:30pm+ sessions currently tracking above 70%. They will fill out before the end.