Ron Weasley trying to look Chuck Norris tough.
Here comes Harry Potter – The Boy Who Lived who made a killing at the box office. No doubt about it, Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2 is THE event film of 2011. And the competition isn’t even close. At the start of the summer I predicted that both Transformers and Harry Potter would dominate box office receipts. But I never expected the curtain call of J.K. Rowling’s fantasy series to generate as much money as quick as it did. Muggles have been out in full force to push the film past a number of records. On Friday, the film started off strong on the strength of its record-breaking $43.5 million performance from midnight showings. People braved sleeplessness and bloodshot eyes (if they went to work later that morning) by insuring that all 3D presentations in the United States sold out. The film would finish Friday with $92.1 million, an opening bow that obliterates the $72 million opening day haul of The Twilight Saga: New Moon. Harry Potter also unseated The Dark Knight on its way to obtaining the largest three-day domestic opening in history. In a strange coincidence, some showings of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 included a teaser trailer for Christopher Nolan’s conclusion to his Batman saga, The Dark Knight Rises. Watch out, Harry, because here comes Batman (insert cheesy opening theme song from 1960s TV show).
Though, you could deflect Harry Potter‘s record-breaking performance on the notion that unlike The Dark Knight, the four-eyed wizard got a push from 3D surcharges. So while it may have grossed $168 million domestically, Nolan’s Batman Begins sequel had the larger audience. Still, even as strong as Pottermania is, it couldn’t dethrone Spider-Man 3 to have the biggest Saturday in box office history.
Warner Bros., thrilled at the performance of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and the franchise overall, is going to miss the $900 million in theatrical receipts per year. With the exception of two years in a decade span the studio could count on the fantasy series to help in the financing of risky projects that it wouldn’t have been able to touch otherwise. With Harry Potter gone, the studio must now rely on superhero movies (The Dark Knight Rises, The Man of Steel) in the coming years as its major tent pole titles. But as Green Lantern proved, superhero movies are more expensive and the risks far outweigh rewards. (Since its release, Green Lantern has yet to gross more than $200 million in the U.S.)
As much press as The Deathly Hallows Part 2 got over the weekend for its box office performance you would think it was the only film playing in theaters. But it turns out that people who couldn’t get into seeing Harry Potter battle Voldemort went to see Transformers: Dark of the Moon (poor guys). Michael Bay’s final installment(?) in the Transformers series crossed $300 million domestic over the weekend. By next week it should have surpassed the first film in the series. Yet, its drop off in recent weeks will prevent it from matching Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen‘s $402 million gross. Overseas, however, Dark of the Moon should make it $800 million by next weekend.
Proving that R-rated comedies are gold this summer, Horrible Bosses had a strong hold in its second weekend finishing with $17.6 million. As much as producer Brett Ratner wants a sequel to happen, he’s deluding himself if he thinks a sequel will be as big as The hangover Part II. Even if it is a superior sequel in terms of quality, do you really think Horrible Bosses 2: Boss Harder can do Hangover numbers? Hell, the first Horrible Bosses won’t even be able to do Hangover numbers.
Cars 2 looks like it is running on empty and will end up with around $180 million domestically. Not bad for an animated release but this is Pixar we are talking about. Even with surcharges and inflation Cars 2 will end up being the weakest attended Pixar release. And this includes A Bug’s Life, a film I’ve always thought got the short end of the stick when people talk about Pixar titles. As impressive as the visuals are the quality comes at a price. With movies like Despicable Me costing considerably less, maybe Pixar needs to think about a more-with-less approach.
To add insult to injury, Roo receives letter to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
To counter program Pottermania this weekend Disney went with Winnie the Pooh (read our review). Um, why? It would be one thing if it was another R-rated comedy or a film release aimed strictly to adults, but the movie is for kids. Probably the same kids who have been introduced to J.K. Rowling’s literary series. Disney knew that kids were going to flock to see the boy wizard and yet they released Pooh the same weekend. The film had a mid-size budget ($30 million) and feels like it was unceremoniously dumped into theaters on less than 2500 screens and little advertising. Shame. The movie is just as magical as Harry Potter, yet people won’t find out until it hits DVD and Blu-ray.
Bad Teacher continues its push to $100 million, while J.J. Abrams’ Super 8 and Tom Hanks’ Larry Crowne look to be finishing up their runs. And to add to all the records broken this weekend, Midnight in Paris became Woody Allen’s most success domestic release in history with $41.8 million grossed. His last few efforts struggle to make more than $10 million domestically (Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Match Point topped out at $23 million), yet his films have started to get a big bump overseas starting with the release of Match Point in 2005, which was shot in London. Since then he hasn’t had a film release make less than $21.6 million overseas. (For the record, that film was Cassandra’s Dream, which made $973,018 domestically).
Turning to indie releases, Errol Morris’ Tabloid had a $101k weekend, while Snow Flower and the Secret of Fan debuted on twenty-four screens to the tune of $126k. The weeks’ biggest indie release was Oscar winner Errol Morris’ “Tabloid,” somehow a more respectable and attractive choice for theatergoers at fourteen locations, scoring a $101k weekend. Actor-turned-director Michael Rapaport’s musical documentary Beats, Rhymes And Life: The Travels Of A Tribe Called Quest (read our review) expanded from four to twenty-two screens this weekend to earn $142k.
Next week, Captain America: The First Avenger and Friends with Benefits do battle to see who will be number two at the box office. That should give you a clue as who will be number one.
1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – $168.6 million ($475.5 million worldwide)
2. Transformers: Dark of the Moon – $21.3 million ($762.8 million worldwide)
3. Horrible Bosses – $17.6 million ($60 million)
4. Zookeeper – $12.3 million ($42 million)
5. Cars 2 – $8.3 million ($286.9 million worldwide)
6. Winnie The Pooh – $8 million
7. Bad Teacher – $5.2 million ($89 million)
8. Larry Crowne – $2.6 million ($32 million)
9. Super 8 – $1.9 million ($122 million)
10. Midnight In Paris – $1.9 million ($75.2 million worldwide)
