HOLLYWOOD - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone grossed an estimated $29.45 million at the box office Friday, according to showbizdata.com, surpassing the record set by Star Wars: Episode I--The Phantom Menace when it took in $28.5 million on its first day in 1999. Harry Potter also looks set to pass the weekend record held by The Lost World: Jurassic Park, which grossed $72.1 million in its opening weekend in 1997. Harry also broke records the second it opened this weekend by showing on 8,200 screens in 3,672 theaters, the widest opening ever.
Early reactions to the film from parents and children, like those of critics, are mixed. One man, who thought the action was a bit intense for children, took his 7-year-old son and his friend to a morning screening. "I wound up with two little boys on my lap hiding in their shirts,'' he said.
On the other hand, a mother who claimed she "cried at the end," said that her little girl "Eliza woke up and said, 'it's like Christmas morning.'''
Meanwhile, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling is busy writing the fifth book in the series, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
All of Rowling's books are expected to become films.