The final movie of the Potter franchise, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2” raked in $168.6 million for its opening weekend beating the previous record of $158.4 million established by “The Dark Knight” in 2008.

The boy wizard also broke the previous best for overseas earnings of $260.4 million recently established by Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides last May. Its international gross was $307 million in 59 countries, including $36.6 million and $26.7 million in Great Britain and Australia, respectively.

In a matter of few days, “Deathly Hallows: Part 2” breached $475 million as it is set to become the franchise’s first billion-dollar global success. The current high by a Potter movie is $974.8 million delivered by “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” a decade ago. According to Dan Fellman, Head of Domestic Distribution of Warner Bros., billion dollars worldwide sales is a possibility.

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2” established several other records as well. It raked in $92.1 million on its opening day Friday, almost $20 million higher than the old record of “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” when it opened in 2009. The final Potter movie also made records for the best domestic gross for debut midnight shows with $43.5 million beating the $30 million of “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.”
Aside from that, “Deathly Hallows Part 2” also established records for the best domestic opening in huge-screen IMAX theaters at $15.5 million higher than the $12.2 of “Alice in Wonderland” last year as well as the record for the best worldwide IMAX debut with $23.5 million, topping the $20.4 million for “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” a couple of weeks ago.
Two week top grosser “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” dropped to second place with its $21.3 million domestic gross. However, it still leads in domestic gross for 2011 at $302.8 million. With its $39 million overseas gross, it ups its international earnings to $460 million and overall worldwide gross to $762.8 million, second to “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” with $1.03 billion.
Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint started the “Potter” franchise at 10 and 11 years old. They grew up with the movie and achieved worldwide popularity because of their roles as Harry Potter, Hermione and Ron. Now, they are moving on as adults and will do more mature roles. Radcliffe is set to venture into a Broadway musical entitled “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.”

Meanwhile, here is the list of this week’s top ten movies based on estimated ticket sales released by Hollywood.com.

1. “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2,” $168.6 million ($307 million international).
2. “Transformers: Dark of the Moon,” $21.3 million ($39 million international).
3. “Horrible Bosses,” $17.6 million.
4. “Zookeeper,” $12.3 million.
5. “Cars 2,” $8.3 million ($12.4 million international).
6. “Winnie the Pooh,” $8 million.
7. “Bad Teacher,” $5.2 million.
8. “Larry Crowne,” $2.6 million.
9. “Super 8,” $1.92 million.
10. “Midnight in Paris,” $1.9 million.

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