And the Box Office Champion this week is...

LOS ANGELES – Harry Potter has cast his biggest box-office spell yet with a franchise record $125.1 million domestically over opening weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday.

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1" also added $205 million in 54 overseas countries, bringing the film's worldwide total to $330.1 million.

In terms of domestic revenue, "Deathly Hallows: Part 1" came in ahead of the series' best previous debut of $102.7 million for 2005's "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire."

But factoring in today's higher admission prices, the latest movie had roughly the same size audience as the franchise's best previous draws — "Goblet of Fire" and 2001's "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," which launched the series. "Deathly Hallows" and those two earlier movies each sold around 16 million tickets in their first weekend.

Overseas markets for "Deathly Hallows" were led by a $28 million opening in Great Britain, $21.8 million in Germany, $14.8 million in Australia, $14 million in Japan and $12.3 million in Russia.

The movie audience has grown up along with young wizard Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and his friends Hermione (Emma Watson) and Ron (Rupert Grint). Distributor Warner Bros. reported that 25 percent of the audience for the new movie was between 18 and 34, compared with only 10 percent for "Sorcerer's Stone" nine years ago.

"When we started `Harry Potter,' basically, the audience was driven to theaters by their parents. Today, those same kids are driving to the midnight shows themselves," said Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner Bros.

DreamWorks Animation's "Megamind," the No. 1 movie the previous two weekends, fell to second-place with $16.2 million, raising its three-week total to $109.5 million.

Russell Crowe's thriller "The Next Three Days," the weekend's only other new wide release, debuted weakly at No. 5 with $6.8 million. Crowe plays a college instructor who plots a jail break to free his wife (Elizabeth Banks) after she's convicted of murder.

Playing in 4,125 theaters domestically, "Deathly Hallows: Part 1" averaged an enormous $30,332 a cinema. That compared with a $2,633 average in 2,564 theaters for "The Next Three Days."

The huge opening bodes well for next July's "Deathly Hallows: Part 2," the eighth and final movie based on J.K. Rowling's seven "Harry Potter" novels. The franchise so far has taken in more than $5.5 billion worldwide.

Warner Bros. plans to release "Deathly Hallows: Part 2" in 3-D, which should give it a big box-office boost, since theaters charge a few dollars more to see movies projected in 3-D compared with 2-D.

"This is kind of the warmup to the potentially 3-D supercharged finale, and that could really take these `Potter' numbers to another level," said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com.

The studio had hoped to release "Deathly Hallows: Part 1" in 3-D, but the filmmakers ran out of time to convert the film, which was shot in 2-D, for 3-D projection.

"Deathly Hallows: Part 1" landed at No. 6 on the domestic revenue chart for biggest opening weekends, a list headed by 2008's "The Dark Knight" with $158.4 million. It also was this year's second-biggest debut, behind "Iron Man 2," which is No. 5 on the all-time chart with $128.1 million.

With $61.2 million Friday, "Deathly Hallows: Part 1" had the fifth-biggest opening day ever.

The film took in $12.4 million, just over 10 percent of its weekend domestic revenue, in huge-screen IMAX theaters. That broke the previous IMAX record debut of $12.1 million set in March by "Alice in Wonderland."

"Harry Potter" was not able to lift Hollywood's total weekend receipts above last year's. Overall revenue came in at an estimated $197 million, down 24 percent from the same weekend a year ago, when the industry had a one-two punch with debuts of $142.8 million for "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" and $34.1 million for "The Blind Side," according to Hollywood.com.

Hollywood is poised for big business over Thanksgiving, one of its busiest weekends.

Revenues should remain strong for "Harry Potter," while studios are delivering a broad range of newcomers with Disney's animated musical "Tangled," featuring the voice of Mandy Moore; Sony's song-and-dance tale "Burlesque," starring Christina Aguilera and Cher; 20th Century Fox's romance "Love & Other Drugs," with Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway: and CBS Films' action thriller "Faster," featuring Dwayne Johnson.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1," $125.1 million.

2. "Megamind," $16.2 million.

3. "Unstoppable," $13.1 million.

4. "Due Date," $9.2 million.

5. "The Next Three Days," $6.8 million.

6. "Morning Glory," $5.2 million.

7. "Skyline," $3.4 million.

8. "Red," $2.5 million.

9. "For Colored Girls," $2.4 million.

10. "Fair Game," $1.5 million.

And the Box Office Champion this week is...

L

OS ANGELES (Reuters) – Harry Potter cast a spell over moviegoers worldwide as the sixth entry in the fantasy franchise set a new opening record of $396.7 million, a clear sign that the lucrative franchise has lost none of its magic.
"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" earned $159.7 million in the United States and Canada, the sixth-biggest opening for a five-day period, distributor Warner Bros. Pictures said on Sunday.
The international component stands at $237 million from 84 markets, also setting a new record.
The old records were held by "Spider-Man 3" in 2007 when its global bow of $381.7 million included foreign sales of $230.5 million.
In North America, the new film outpaced its predecessor, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," which opened to $139.7 million two years ago. That picture ended with $938 million worldwide, the seventh-biggest movie of all time before accounting for inflation.
But while the five-day sum was impressive, it was dwarfed by the $200 million opening for "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" last month, which was just $3.8 million behind the record set last year by "The Dark Knight."
Top international markets for the new film included Britain with $32.4 million, Germany with $23 million, France with $20.2 million and Japan with $18.2 million.
"We are thrilled with the record-setting international results this weekend, showing that Harry Potter's audiences continue to grow as the characters mature with every installment in the series," said Veronika Kwan-Rubinek, president of international distribution at the Time Warner Inc-owned studio.
BILLION-DOLLAR QUESTION
The big issue is whether the new film will become the first in the franchise to crack the $1 billion mark. The biggest movie was the first one, 2001's "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," which finished with $975 million, the fifth-biggest movie of all time. (Internationally, the title was "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.")
The new film cost $235 million to make, the priciest yet in the lucrative franchise. The first five movies generated $4.5 billion in ticket sales worldwide. DVD sales send the tally even higher.
The new film opened worldwide on Wednesday, not a moment too soon for fans of the boy wizard and his pals. It was originally scheduled to open in November, but Warner Bros. decided to delay it until summer, devastating Potterphiles around the globe.
The action revolves around secret plots involving Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) and his nemesis Draco (Tom Felton), as the visually stunning film takes viewers deeper into the dark side. There are also budding romances among the young stars. It marks the second consecutive Harry Potter film directed by David Yates.
For the traditional three-day weekend, Friday through Sunday, the new "Harry Potter" film earned $79.5 million in North America, not far ahead of the $77.1 million haul for "Order of the Phoenix." Comparisons with the other movies in the franchise are difficult because those opened on Friday while the latter two opened on Wednesday.
Last weekend's North American champion, Universal Pictures' "Bruno," tumbled to No. 4 with $8.4 million for the three-day period, losing a hefty 73 percent of its opening-weekend audience. Movies generally hope for a 50 percent fall in their second weekend. The 10-day haul for British satirist Sacha Baron Cohen's risque look at gay culture stands at a modest $49.6 million.
20th Century Fox's "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" was steady at No. 2 with $17.7 million. The total for the cartoon rose to $152 million. The studio said it is the biggest film of the year internationally, with sales of $429 million, ahead of Paramount's "Transformers" sequel with $398 million.
But the robot picture has earned $363.9 million in North America, bolstered by a $13.8 million weekend, good enough for a second round at No. 3.
Universal is a unit of General Electric Co's NBC Universal. Fox is a unit of News Corp. Paramount Pictures is a unit of Viacom Inc.

Does Harry Potter equals plagiarism?

Well, the estate of one author says so...

LONDON (Reuters) – Bloomsbury Publishing Plc on Monday denied allegations that author J.K. Rowling copied "substantial parts" of a book by another children's author when she wrote "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire."
The book, published in 2000, was the fourth installment of the hugely successful boy wizard Harry Potter series that has sold more than 400 million copies worldwide and been turned into a multi-billion-dollar film franchise.
"The allegations of plagiarism made today, Monday 15 June 2009, by the Estate of Adrian Jacobs are unfounded, unsubstantiated and untrue," said a statement from Bloomsbury, which publishes Harry Potter in Britain.
"This claim is without merit and will be defended vigorously."
In an earlier statement, Jacobs' estate said that it had issued proceedings at London's High Court against Bloomsbury Publishing Plc for copyright infringement.
"The Estate is also seeking a court order against J.K. Rowling herself for pre-action disclosure in order to determine whether to join her as a defendant to the ... action," the statement read.
It named the estate's trustee as Paul Allen, and said that Rowling had copied "substantial parts" of "The Adventures of Willy the Wizard -- No 1 Livid Land" written by Jacobs in 1987.
It added that the plot of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire copied elements of the plot of Willy the Wizard, including a wizard contest, and that the Potter series borrowed the idea of wizards traveling on trains.
"Both Willy and Harry are required to work out the exact nature of the main task of the contest which they both achieve in a bathroom assisted by clues from helpers, in order to discover how to rescue human hostages imprisoned by a community of half-human, half-animal fantasy creatures," the estate statement said.
"It is alleged that all of these are concepts first created by Adrian Jacobs in Willy the Wizard, some 10 years before J.K. Rowling first published any of the Harry Potter novels and 13 years before Goblet of Fire was published."
According to the statement, Jacobs had sought the services of literary agent Christopher Little who later became Rowling's agent. Jacobs died "penniless" in a London hospice in 1997, it said.
In its response, Bloomsbury said Rowling "had never heard of Adrian Jacobs nor seen, read or heard of his book Willy the Wizard until this claim was first made in 2004, almost seven years after the publication of the first book in the highly publicized Harry Potter series.

It's refreshing to see somebody as litigious as J.K. Rowling, being accused of the same thing she had sued people for! And we haven't heard from author Alan Moore, the creator of "Watchmen" and "V for Vendetta" yet. He wrote a comic book series named "The Books of Magic" in which a bespectacled 12 year old kid in England learns that he is a wizard and it's trained in it's use. Sounds familiar? Well it was written in 1985, a full 12 years before JK Rowlings opus.
I know, because I read it!
Better than that Harry Potter crap!!!!

New Harry Potter Movie postponed

Word is that the new Harry Potter movie "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince", that was scheduled for a November 21st, 2008 release, has been postponed. The new release date is July 17th, 2009.
The reason given by Warner Brothers, the film's studio is that last winter's writers strike has affected the whole movie industry and giving the movie an 11 month extension will "benefit from the re-writes", "help the box office" and fill a gap next year for a "blockbuster opening".
In the mean time, you Potterphiles, enjoy the trailer. The other Potter film, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" will be released in 2 parts, one in 2010, the next in 2011.