While Fellman isn't projecting yet where the film could wind up domestically, he observed, "Where it's going, it's going to be in a good place. We're in uncharted waters. We're breaking records every day and we just take it one day at a time."
Looking at who's going to see the film, Fellman noted, "The audience is eight to 80. It's moms with kids. It's dads with kids. It's families. It's just adults alone. We're certainly getting a lot more adult play than anybody had ever imagined. When you're doing these kind of numbers, it's fantastic because you do have a lot of kids there, but you can't do these kind of grosses if you're not filling up your 8 o'clock and 10 o'clock shows at night. That's where the audiences become predominantly adult.
"You know [it's playing to adults], when you go by all these big multiplexes at 10 and 11 o'clock at night and you see lines for Harry Potter. We're getting the kids in the afternoon and we're packing 'em in. But at night, it's the adult trade that's making this movie a phenomenon."
Fellman also pointed out that production is underway in London on the second film in the Harry Potter franchise -- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. "The first week of shooting went spectacularly well," he said, adding that the picture is scheduled for release next Thanksgiving. Directed once again by Chris Columbus, the second Harry Potter movie brings back Daniel Radcliffe in the title role as well as the key players in the first film's cast.
Looking ahead to this year's holiday season, Fellman commented, "And don't forget Ocean's Eleven. We're going to go as wide as we can go [on Dec. 7]." Directed by Steven Soderbergh, Ocean's extensive cast includes such stars as George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Julia Roberts.
Thanks to the blockbuster grosses for Harry Potter's opening the previous weekend, Fellman said, Warner Bros. is now the distributor with the year to date's largest share of the marketplace. "The $90 million [opening] weekend propelled us into the number one market share last week," he said. "We passed Universal, which has been having the best year in the world. There's no looking back for us now. Harry Potter has pushed us into the market share leader [position]. Not only are we going to win the year in market share, but we have a very, very good possibility of breaking the all-time record held by Sony of $1.2 billion."