BoxOffice Mojo has been updatingHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I‘s box office progress throughout the weekend. As of today it has pulled in $125,120,000 in the US and $205,000,000 internationally! They report the following:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 drew an estimated $125.1 million on approximately 9,400 screens at 4,125 locations, blowing past the franchise’s last pre-Thanksgiving debut and previous opening weekend gross high, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which earned $102.7 million out of the gate in 2005. New Moon still holds the November record with $142.8 million, while the other pictures ahead of Deathly on the overall chart are The Dark Knight ($158.4 million), Spider-Man 3 ($151.1 million), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest ($135.6 million) and Iron Man 2 ($128.1 million).
In terms of estimated attendance, Deathly Hallows Part 1’s start came in slightly behind the first movie, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and Goblet of Fire. As a franchise, Harry Potter has grossed nearly $1.84 billion thus far, ranking second to Star Wars’ $1.92 billion (though it greatly trails in attendance). Within ten days, the Harry Potter franchise total should surpass Star Wars.
Included in Deathly Hallows Part 1’s weekend gross was the $24 million it made in its midnight/early Friday opening, which was the third biggest-grossing ever behind Eclipse and New Moon. Anticipation was so high that the Deathly Hallows Part 1’s $61.2 million Friday accounted for 49 percent of the weekend gross, charting as the sixth-largest Friday share of a weekend on record, though it wasn’t as front-loaded as New Moon (51 percent). Deathly Hallows Part 1 also played at a record number of IMAX venues (239), and they contributed an estimated $12.4 million, setting a new opening weekend benchmark for the format.
Distributor Warner Bros.’ exit polling indicated that 57 percent of Deathly Hallows Part 1’s audience was female and 56 percent under 25 years old, which was close to the last movie. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 is scheduled to debut on July 15, 2011.
I got my latest issue of Teen Vogue yesterday (yes, I still get it even though I am 22 😉 ) and Bonnie Wright is featured in the People Watching section. Thanks to So-Bonnie you can view the scan below, (it will pop-up into a lightbox). The scan has a mini interview as well as a new photo of the Ginny Weasley actress.
In a new interview with Contact Music, Tom Felton talks about how he drew the sketch of Harry that we see in Prisoner of Azkaban and also how he treasures his scripts from the set:
The young Brit, who plays villainous Draco Malfoy in the Potter films, created the drawing for a scene in the third movie and he couldn’t be prouder that it’s now hanging up in California.
He says, “There’s a drawing I did in the third film of Harry being struck by lightning. I remember the art department giving me a drawing of Harry and I said, ‘That’s useless. Give it here and I’ll draw my own one.’
“I spent an hour with the quill mastering this. This is my real work of art and that’s in the Harry Potter museum in Burbank. When I saw that I was a little touched.”
And he admits his home has become a bit of a Potter museum: “I’ve got the last four scripts of the films signed in the front by everyone and I treasure those and I have a letter from J.K. Rowling that I’ve framed and I treasure that as well. I make sure I take care of the things that are sentimental to me.”
The Huffington Post has a new, very long, interview with Harry Potter producer David Heyman. In the interview he talks about working on the series and the final films as well as the different directors they have had do the films and so much more.
Q: I thought people would say, “Is it too British? Are people going to get it?” Even though Lord of the Rings originated with a British author it went beyond the Britishness of it all but part of the Potter films’ charm is their pure Britishness.
DH: Absolutely, and I think we’ve celebrated that more so as we’ve gone on. We had an American director [Chris Columbus] on the first [Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and second, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets]; Mexican [Alfonso Cuarón] on the third [Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban]; and then on the fourth[Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, we had one Englishman, Mike Newell; and then on the fifth [Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix ], sixth [Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince]. and now seeing it through to the end [Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows], we have another Brit at the helm. And that’s great too.
Q: Are you amazed that the series has been so successful or did it seem relatively foolproof?
DH: I didn’t know that we were going to go to the end really until after the fourth film. Once we’d done the fourth film then I felt pretty secure that we’d probably march towards the end. I thought that with the sixth one, there might be a hiccup as it were. And I think the last film will be successful because it’s the last one, but I was a little bit nervous about this one for various reasons.As I’ve said, it was a bit of a tweener, a lot of it is setting up the next film, and one always has doubt – will people pirate it? What’s happened is that I think people have assumed a certain ownership of these characters and these actors; they enjoy watching them grow up before their eyes — our eyes.
Of all the great advantages I have, or we have, over other franchises is that we have Jo Rowling’s books. Certainly other franchises, I mean look at Bond, have to create a new story each time. So, I’m always relieved, a little bit surprised and relieved.
The Harry Potter Japan Facebook has been updated with photos of Rupert Grint, Bonnie Wright, and Evanna Lynch at a fan event that was held in Osaka. View the photos below and remember, you can order your tickets for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I here at Fandango. And, you can read my review of Deathly Hallows: Part I by going to this page, but there are spoilers if you haven’t seen the film yet.
