HOLLYWOOD - With a wave of his magic wand, Harry Potter made $93.5 million disappear from moviegoers' pockets this weekend.The record-shattering arrival of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone represented a triumph for Warner Bros.' production, marketing and distribution teams. It was clear as early as Saturday morning that Harry was going to rewrite Hollywood history.
Harry's Friday take of $31.6 million immediately gave it top honors for being the biggest grossing single day ever. That record had been held by 20th Century Fox and Lucasfilm Ltd.'s Star Wars: Episode One -- The Phantom Menace, which opened to $28.5 million on May 19, 1999.
As insiders woke up Saturday morning to estimates of Friday's business -- Warners' was estimating $31.3 million then -- it was clear that no matter what happened Saturday and Sunday, Harry would do at least $90 million and quite possibly more for the weekend. That meant it would become the biggest three-day opening weekend ever as soon as the weekend was over. The previous record holder, Universal's The Lost World: Jurassic Park, had grossed $72.1 million for the Friday to Sunday period of its opening over the Memorial Day holiday weekend in May 1997. Lost World did $92.7 million in its first four days of domestic theatrical release.
Harry appears to be on track to crack $100 million on Monday, its fourth day in release, which would make it the fastest film ever to reach that milestone. To do so, it will need to gross $6.5 million, or perhaps a little more than that depending on how Sunday's ticket sales actually come in. Given that there are likely to be a lot of people who despite the record number of theaters (3,672) and screens (about 8,200 or approximately 25 percent of all domestic screens) couldn't get in to see the film over the weekend and want to catch up with it quickly, Harry could enjoy a very strong Monday at the box office. The record for getting to $100 million fastest is currently held by Phantom Menace, which needed five days to get there.
With $93.5 million already in hand and the entire holiday season still ahead of it, Harry seems virtually certain to gross at least $300 million in domestic theaters.
In the face of Harry's mega-blockbuster impact on the marketplace, the Buena Vista/Disney and Pixar computer-animated blockbuster Monsters, Inc. fell sharply -- grossing about $23 million, off 49 percent -- as insiders had anticipated.
