It may be darker than ever, but Harry Potter still brings the magic at the box office. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince worked its wizardry on audiences to the tune of nearly $160 million for its first five days in the theater, with $79.5 million of that coming over the weekend.
That's not quite as strong as the five-day opening for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen last month (that movie pulled in $201.2 million in its first five days), but it's the best tally yet for a Harry Potter movie.
The other big story of this weekend's box office is the fall of Bruno. Last weekend's box office winner pulled in just $8.4 million this week, finishing in fourth place. That put it behind second-place Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, which brought in $17.7 million. Transformers kept up the pace with a third-place tally of $13.8 million.
In indie news, 500 Days of Summer had a solid debut with almost $840,000 from just 27 theaters. It'll be interesting to see how that movie holds up when it expands into many more theaters this weekend.
Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.
S***r
500 Days is released by Fox Searchlight, which is a master of the slow roll: Slumdog Millionaire, Little Miss Sunshine, Juno, the Wrestler etc.
I think 500 Days is definitely better than two of those films and there aren't really any indie event films out right now. I think it'll do well on counter programming alone.
1I'm shocked HP6 didn't gross higher than Transformers 2.
2too bad the movie was awful!
3HP 6 was not awful! It may have strayed far from the sixth book, but it was still an excellent film.
4et tu, Bruno?
5And as for HP not making as much as Transformers, HP isn't in IMAX yet (ie getting inflated ticket prices) because Transformers is still in them.
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