Monday, July 16, 2007

Potter's Field

The magic of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix zapped Transformers from the top spot--taking over as the top flick in the nation.

Brandon Gray of Box Office Mojo:

Displaying the franchise's continued strength, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix invoked an estimated $77.4 million over the weekend, while Transformers had a standard drop for its genre...


Pamela McClintock of Variety:

Warner Bros.' "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" whipped up a powerful potion at the box office with an estimated five-day bow of $140 million, the best non-holiday showing on record.

"Phoenix's" weekend take was an estimated $77.4 million from a whopping 4,285 locations, combined with a Wednesday and Thursday take of $62.6 million. Opening day take of $44.2 million was the best Wednesday opening ever.

Overseas, the wizardry was just as strong. "Phoenix" finished its five-day opening at $190.3 million from 61 markets for a worldwide total of $330 million.

Stateside, holdovers displayed remarkable stamina. DreamWorks and Paramount's "Transformers" dropped only 49% in its second frame, with an estimated weekend take of $36 million from 4,050 locations for a new cume of $223 million.

Coming in No. 3 and No. 4 were Disney-Pixar's "Ratatouille" and 20th Century Fox's "Live Free or Die Hard," which were down just 38% and 39%, respectively, in their third frames. "Ratatouille" made $18 million from 3,625 theaters for a new total of $143 million.

"Live Free" crossed the $100 million mark at the box office, taking in $10.9 million from 3,201 locations for a new cume of $102.9 million.

Warner Bros. also nabbed the No. 5 spot with laffer "License to Wed," which made roughly $7.4 million from 2,715 locations in its second frame, a mere 29% drop. Pic's new cume is $30.5 million.

Michael Moore's docu "Sicko" made $2.7 million as it expanded to 756 locations for a new total of $15.9 million; a strong number for so early in the docu's run...

Read Variety's full report...

Joshua Rich of Entertainment Weekly:

Harry Potter works his magic with moviegoers

Harry Potter's record-breaking win is no real surprise given how weak the new weekend competition was...It would have been interesting to see which film would have come out on top--had the the "bots" gone head to head with "Phoenix" in the same weekend.

I'm sure Michael Moore's smackdown last week with CNN over the accuracy of the film that got a lot of media attention last week--helped to fuel interest in the film...

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