HARRY POTTER - YOUNG MOVIEGOERS GIVE HARRY A MAGICAL WEEK

The box office remained under the spell of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix over the weekend as the Warner Bros. film added an estimated $77.4 million to its gross, bringing its total since Wednesday to $140 million in North America. (Screenings in 91 IMAX theaters accounted for $7.3 million of the total, making it the biggest IMAX opening on record.) The film raked in even more overseas, it made an estimated $190.3 million in 44 countries -- the biggest overseas opening ever for a Warner Bros. movie -- bringing its worldwide total to $330 million. Although the results were in line with analysts' predictions, the opening of the movie did not have an acute negative impact on attendance for holdovers -- as had also been predicted. Hardest hit was last weekend's top film, Transformers, down 49 percent to a nevertheless better-than-expected $36 million, bringing its 13-day total to $223 million. Ratatouille declined just 38 percent to $18 million, to bring its 17-day gross to $143 million. (Disney pointed out that "no other animated film had a drop of under 40 percent against a Harry Potter opening until now.") Live Free or Die Hard was down 39 percent to $10.9 million, as its total crossed the $100-million mark to $102.9 million. Showing the smallest drop was Michael Moore's documentary Sicko, which was down only 26 percent from the previous weekend as it made $2.6 million, to bring its three-week total to $15.8 million. Overall, the box office was up 14 percent over the comparable weekend a year ago. The only negative box-office news was that horror flick Captivity, the only other new film besides Harry to open wide, tanked with just $1.4 million, putting it out of the top-ten.

The top ten films for the weekend, according to studio estimates compiled by Media by Numbers:
1. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, $77.4 million; 2. Transformers, $36 million; 3. Ratatouille, $18 million; 4. Live Free or Die Hard, $10.9 million; 5. License to Wed, $7.4 million; 6. 1408, $5.01 million; 7. Evan Almighty, $5 million; 8. Knocked Up, $3.7 million; 9. Sicko, $2.65 million; 10. Ocean's Thirteen, $1.9 million.

16/07/2007