'Deathly Hallows Pt 1' Tops US B-O

NOV 22, 2010 - - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 topped the North America box-office over the weekend with an estimated US$125.1 million, ranking as the sixth highest-grossing opening weekend of all time and the biggest-grossing of the series.

Worldwide, it earned an estimated US$205 million on 19,000 screens in 91 markets (including $4.2 million from 101 IMAX screens).

As a franchise, Harry Potter has grossed nearly US$1.84 billion thus far, ranking second to Star Wars' $1.92 billion (though Potter's had less than half the attendance). Within 10 days, the Harry Potter franchise total should surpass Star Wars, and there's still one more movie to go, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, scheduled for July 15, 2011.

Also opening was The Next Three Days, but the thriller was a bust, making an estimated US$6.8 million on close to 2,700 screens at 2,564 locations. That was on the low end of the genre, doing less than half the business of star Russell Crowe's last thriller, State of Play.

Here are the Top 5 North American B-O studio estimates for Nov 19-21, 2010 weekend, in terms of rank, Movie name (studio), Weekend takings in USD, (Cumulative gross, USD) and week on chart, courtesy of Boxofficemojo.

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (Warner Bros.) $125.1 million ($125.1 million) 1

2. Megamind (Paramount DreamWorks) $16.2 million ($109.5 million) 3

3. Unstoppable (Fox) $13.1 million ($42.0 million) 2

4. Due Date (Warner Bros.) $9.2 million ($72.7 million) 3

5. The Next Three Days (Lionsgate) $6.8 million ($6.8 million) 1