HARRY POTTER - HELLO, HALLOWS; GOODBYE, PHOENIX

With more than 12 million young buyers of the final Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, poring over it during the weekend, ticket sales for Warner Bros.' Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix dropped 58 percent from last weekend. As a result, Universal's I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, starring Adam Sandler and Kevin James, took over the top spot at the box office. Chuck and Larry earned an estimated $34.8 million (and was the ninth Adam Sandler movie to open in first place), while Phoenix took in around $32.2 million to bring its total domestic gross to $207.5 million. By contrast, first-day book sales amounted to more than $250 million. In third place, Hairspray made about $27.8 million -- far better than box-office analysts had predicted. (USA Today called it, "the surprise of the weekend.") Also continuing to perform strongly were Paramount/DreamWorks' Transformers, which placed fourth with $20.5 million, and Disney/Pixar's Ratatouille, which placed fifth with $11 million.

The top ten films for the weekend, according to studio estimates compiled by Media by Numbers:
1. I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, $34.8 million; 2. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, $32.2 million; 3. Hairspray, $27.8 million; 4. Transformers, $20.5 million; 5. Ratatouille, $11 million; 6. Live Free or Die Hard, $7.3 million; 7. License to Wed, $3.8 million; 8. 1408, $2.6 million; 9. Evan Almighty, $2.5 million; 10. Knocked Up, $2.3 million.

23/07/2007