‘Harry Potter’ Film Sales Top $159.7 Million in First Five Days
July 20 (Bloomberg) — “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” generated $159.7 million in sales in its first five days in U.S. and Canadian theaters, trailing “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” for the best such opening this year.
The film, released by Time Warner Inc. on July 15, had ticket revenue of $79.5 million for the three-day weekend, researcher Hollywood.com Box-Office said in an e-mailed statement.
“This is amazing because the franchise is eight years in, and really still that relevant,” said Paul Dergarabedian, an analyst at Hollywood.com Box-Office, in a telephone interview.
The company’s Warner Bros. film studio plans two more Potter movies based on the seventh book, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.” The first five movies grossed $1.4 billion in the U.S. and Canada starting in 2001 and $4.48 billion worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo LLC, which also tracks receipts.
“People went to this comparing it with ‘Transformers’ domestically, but I don’t think it’ll hold quite that well,” said Jeff Bock, senior box-office analyst at Los Angeles-based Exhibitor Relations, which also tracks sales. “The international audience for ‘Potter’ is always twice as strong as domestic.”
The film generated a record $22.2 million from midnight shows on July 15, according to Hollywood.com, and has taken in $137.5 million since then.
IMAX Boost
“Harry Potter’ may get a really nice boost in the third weekend when it goes into the IMAX theaters, which can account for as much as 10 percent of the weekend total for a film,” said Dergarabedian.
In “Half-Blood Prince,” Harry and his friends Hermione and Ron are menaced by the growing power of the evil Voldemort and his Death Eater allies. The film includes the death of a major character and big changes for the trio.
Neither Box Office Mojo nor the Internet Movie Database, two industry Web sites owned by Amazon.com Inc., reported a production budget for the latest Potter film. The fifth film in the series, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” cost $150 million, according to Box Office Mojo LLC, based in Sherman Oaks, California.
The Sacha Baron Cohen comedy “Bruno” dropped to fourth from first with $8.4 million for distributor NBC Universal, Hollywood.com said. The film has taken in $49.6 million since it was released on July 10, the researcher said.
In “Bruno,” Baron Cohen takes on the persona of the gay Austrian fashion commentator created for his television program “Da Ali G Show.” The film cost about $42 million to produce, according to IMDB.com.
“We expected a drop, but not that big,” said Bock of the 73 percent decline in per-theater average for “Bruno.”
‘Ice Age’
News Corp.’s 3-D “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs,” the third installment in an animated series that began in 2002, stayed in second place with $17.7 million. The film follows the new adventures of prehistoric animals, including mammoths, a sloth and a saber-toothed tiger. Queen Latifah, Denis Leary and John Leguizamo provide the voices.
The movie has earned $152 million since its July 1 release, Hollywood.com said.
“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” was in third place, taking in $13.8 million in weekend sales for Viacom Inc.’s Paramount Pictures. Shia LaBeouf reprises his role as Sam Witwicky, a geeky teen who gets caught up in a centuries-old feud involving warring groups of alien robots.
Second Big Hit
The movie has taken in $363.9 million since being released on June 24, according to Hollywood.com, and is the second big hit of the summer for Paramount. “Star Trek,” released in May, has taken in $253.2 million in the U.S. and Canada, Los Angeles- based Hollywood.com said.
“The Hangover,” also from Warner Bros., rose to fifth from sixth in its seventh week of release with $8.3 million to take its domestic total to $235.9 million.
Sales for the top 12 films this weekend fell to $153.9 million, or 39 percent from a year earlier, Hollywood.com Box- Office said. Year-to-date receipts rose 10 percent to $5.98 billion compared with a year earlier, Hollywood.com said. Attendance is up 7.6 percent this year.
The following table has figures provided by studios to Hollywood.com Box-Office. The amounts are based on actual ticket sales for July 17, 18 and estimates for yesterday.
Rev. Avg./ Pct. Total
Movie (mln) Theaters Theater Chg. (mln) Wks
==============================================================
1 HARRY POTTER $79.5 4,325 $18,376 – 159.7 1
2 ICE AGE: DINOSAURS 17.7 3,817 4,637 -36 152.0 3
3 TRANSFORMERS 13.8 3,857 3,565 -43 363.8 4
4 BRUNO 8.4 2,759 3,035 -73 49.6 2
5 THE HANGOVER 8.3 2,667 3,118 -16 235.9 7
6 THE PROPOSAL 8.3 3,043 2,726 -22 128.1 5
7 PUBLIC ENEMIES 7.6 3,118 2,435 -45 79.5 3
8 UP 3.1 1,708 1,843 -33 279.6 8
9 MY SISTER’S KEEPER 2.9 1,967 1,436 -34 41.5 4
10 I LOVE YOU BETH 2.7 1,872 1,424 – 10.3 2
11 TAKING OF PELHAM 0.9 610 1,475 -42 62.9 6
12 DAYS OF SUMMER 0.8 27 31,022 – 0.8 1
Top 12 Films Grosses
This Week Year Ago Pct.
(mln) (mln) Chg.
===================================
$153.9 $253.6 -39.3
Year-to-date Revenue
2009 2008
YTD YTD Pct.
(mln) (mln) Chg.
===================================
$5,984 $5,435 +10.1
Year-to-date Attendance: +7.6%
To contact the reporters on this story: Michael White in Los Angeles at mwhite@bloomberg.net; Dan Hart in Washington at dahart@bloomberg.net.
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