Harry Potter fans could very well have been employing a cloning spell last night, as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 1 grossed a tremendous $24 million from midnight and early morning showings, according to studio estimates. Deathly Hallows debuted at 3,700 theaters at midnight, with many theaters showing the PG-13 movie on multiple screens and adding showtimes as late as 3:15 a.m. The $24 million midnight figure is the most ever for a Harry Potter film, topping Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince‘s $22.2 million midnight debut from last year. Deathly Hallows, however, fell short of the last two Twilight movies: This year’s The Twilight Saga: Eclipse summoned a record $30 million from midnight screenings, while The Twilight Saga: New Moon earned $26.3 million.
Read more:
Box office preview: ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ would like your attention
‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part I’ at midnight: There’s an adorable little child in every inebriated college student
‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ countdown: Remembering ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’
‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 1′ EW review
Just wait until Deathly Hallows Part 2…
Amen.
Screw these dudes, I will save my money for the release of the second movie when they will inevitably re-show this one in theaters. Suckers.
$15 to expensive for you blood Freddie?
How many parts are there to Deathly Hallows?
The actual Deathly Hallows consist of three, but the movie is only two.
oh snap!
LMAO anya
@Anya Genius reply.
Anya didn’t say anything genius or particularly biting. She just made a pretty weak snarky comment. I mean really, if you think such a snoozer of a come back is so brilliant, it speaks to why something as mediocre as the Harry Potter books are so popular among a certain demographic. Weak minded and easily entertained.
You’re stupid and mediocre.
Gwen, you’re so right. I’d like to apologize on behalf of all us Harry Potter fans for not providing the top notch intellectual discourse you’re so used to getting on the Entertainment Weekly website. (And Anya, very cute comment. Loved it!)
Thank you for proving my point.
Wow you need to take it down a notch there! Anya didn’t say anything mean spirited, you on the other hand did – get over yourself. If you think the Harry Potter franchise is so mediocre and “are so popular among a certain demographic. Weak minded and easily entertained.” Why are you even reading the article , let alone commenting on it?
I AGREE. Harry Potter is untouchable. Unlike Twilight if you get to close, your blood might be sucked.
HP7 Part 2- $40 million opening night. Already calling it
Saw it at midnight. It was FANTASTIC! I really wish today was July 15.
I’m still recovering. Home at 3am, at work at 7:30. It was worth it.
Home at 3, studied till 10 am (in college), and still up and kicking. God Bless Red Bull
yup, same here. totally worth it! i want to see it again!
Gods, it was BORING! zzzzzzzzzzzzz…
Same!! We can sleep over the weekend
Same here, and I’d do it again. Loved it.
Same here! Totally worth the lack of sleep!
Agreed. Feeling like a zombie all day today was totally worth it!
It may not have made as much money as twilight…but it was waaaay better (i would know seeing as me and my friend were watching Twilight on her computer in the theatre waiting for Harry Potter to start!
)
Why do they always have to compare Harry to Twilight, even if it’s just on how much money they make on opening weekends? Seriously, people, it’s annoying and quite frankly getting old. No one cares anymore, except the girls who think Twilight is the “BEST BOOK EVERRR!!!!111111″
Which is no different from the HP fans who think HP is the “BEST BOOK EVERRRRR!!!!1111″. Jeezus…enough with putting down other properties’ fans. If one thing that HP fans always claim as what makes them “superior” to Twilight fans is that the HP books are smarter, why not act like the purported smart people you are and refrain from attacking others? Enjoy your books, and let the Twifans enjoy theirs. EW’s comparison only leads to these annoying fan-wars… Ugh
The thing is it’s usually the Twilight fans that are declaring that Twilight is so much better. HP fans know that HP is the superior series and knows that they don’t need to argue about it.
HP fans know that HP is the superior series in the same way Twilight fans know Twilight is the superior series.
Everytime I see an instance of this HP vs Twi war, it’s always HP fans slinging mud. For no apparent reason. Enough with that. You think HP is superior? Awesome. You don’t have to attack Twilight fans because of that. Act like mature people, act like mature people who love “intelligent books”…like the books you keep saying HP are.
WOW. sour grapes someone?
Its always the twihards who sing praises of twilight.
If quality of writing is anything to go by, then HP books are superior without a doubt. I don’t care if other people think you can’t compare them or that it’s an unfair comparison. The fact is, JK Rowling is a much, much, much, much better writer than Stephenie Meyer, and that’s easy to see if you’ve read both.
While judging creativity is quite subjective, one could argue that creating the HP world is much more of an accomplishment than the Twilight world.
But again, on quality of writing HP is clearly superior. Can’t be denied.
I am also tired of the comparisons, but I think in this case the movies are being compared because the previous two Twilight films hold the records.
I completely agree. Currently they’re the two biggest movie franchises, and both have loyal fan bases, which shows in the numbers. It doesn’t mean either is better, because both of them make an INSANE amount of cash.
I agree with you Alex, on the fact that everyone seems to feel the need to compare HP to Twilight. BUT I think the reason Twilight was mentioned in this article is because it was the biggest midnight screening ever. If it was another movie, like Star Wars, HP still would have been compared to it in this article.
The comparisons are made here since two Twilight films have the record for number 1 and 2 midnight opening. Potter 7 meanwhile is now number 3. That’s why they’re being compared.
I don’t even pretend to waste time comparing the two. Whenever someone tries to goad me into an HP vs. Twilight debate, I just can’t take it seriously because they’re not even close to being in the same category as each other. It would be like comparing an HD TV to a badly tuned 1940s radio: completely obvious and you’re stupid for even asking.
exactly!
LOL totally agree!!!
i like how in the movie ron says “twilight sounds better…or maybe not”…I KNOW it is said in the books but i think its funny, even if they didn’t mean it
It was a deliberate joke. They said so themselves.
oh my gosh, really? that’s awesome LOL
They’re just comparing numbers in this case, not franchises. They do this with many movies, it’s no big deal. Honestly, I don’t see why there has to be fighting about it at all. I think Harry Potter is far superior, but I enjoy both and I’m not ashamed of it. I like what I like and I don’t need permission. We should all feel that way.
I’m still exhausted, but yes, it was worth it. I’ll be going back Sunday.
Leave it to them to bring up Twilight.
I LOVED this movie!! Amazing! I can’t wait to see it again! The film just went by SO fast. There’s no way it was 2 hours and 30 minutes long. I stood in the longest line I’ve ever seen in my life, but the film was definitely worth it the wait!!
I’m so jealous. Haven’t seen it yet, as my college age daughter won’t be home til Thanksgiving weekend.
P.S. I like both Harry Potter and Twilight. HP, however, is the best, due to magincal story, the writing, 7 books and movies, and the 10 year love affair my children and I have had with it.
In 1999, I started reading Sorcerer Stone to my daughters (now 20 and 16) at bedtime. When the movie came out, we read the books as a family. Harry Potter has been a huge part of our lives for a long time. My kids have grown up with Harry, Ron and Hermione. Our youngest is 5 and starting to take an interest. I’ll be happy to experience the series again
I’m 19 and my mom used to read the first two books to my sister and I when we were younger. Halfway through the third one, they both kind of lost interest so I picked up where they left off. Prisoner of Azkaban was the first real book I read by myself. As we all grew older, we grew apart, but now that HP is coming to an end, we’re all bonding over the series yet again. It’s an incredible thing to share, and I’m sure your daughters really appreciate that you did that for them, and in turn they will read to their children at bedtime, maybe even Harry Potter. It truly is a very special series.
I’m 20, and I don’t understand how women over a certain age (lets say 22) can enjoy twilight. Personally, the first one wasn’t bad, and the second one wasn’t terrible. But they’re just shallow, uninteresting and unthoughtful (redundant) caricatures at the end of the day. But ofc, I’m down with cougars. In which case, gimi yo numbaaa
numbaaaaa
I’m 30, and I don’t understand why I should care what some 20 year old kid thinks of what I like or don’t like. Oh that’s right, I don’t. I AM, however, interested in how you came up with the 22 year cutoff. Lol
I know several people who work in movie theaters and the movie was only released as a digital print to many of them. This severely limited the ability of the theaters to “link” screens. In some cases a theater that showed Twilight on 24 screens at a time was only able to show Hallows on 15. That had to effect the box office and number of tickets sold.
Not sure this holds true… Harry Potter 7 now holds the record for the number of midnight screens…from Deadline Hollywood:
“It will play in a whopping 3,700 midnight locations, which is a record, with the screen count to adjust based on the demand so that figure could climb even higher.”
It really doesn’t matter. Everyone knows that Twilight is the most front-loaded franchise outside of horror movies. Either way, it would have been hard for Harry Potter to match that opening. Look for DH part 1 to outpace the twilight movies in the coming weeks.
Exactly. The Twilight films may have the bigger opening weekends, but the Harry Potter films blow them out of the water when it comes to total box office gross, which is what matters most.
I’m not sure it really “matters”, but Dave is right. That was my thought – Twilight movies burst out of the gate and then tend to slow down, but HP will have more longevity. I know I’ll be going back again, which I didn’t feel compelled to do with any of the Twilight movies yet, although I do enjoy them.
The comparisons continue…
let’s be real people: a series of books that is so epic that it deserves an amusement park in its likeness is more than likely superior.
let’s be logical about this…
How about we let it stand the test of time before calling it epic. If were still talking about how great it is in 25+ years then we will have something epic on our hands. I’m sure back in the day people were calling The Neverending Story” epic. Not so much today.
I saw The Neverending Story when it was released in theaters and it was good, but I have to say no one was calling it epic at that time.
I’m ready for the HP series to be made into a 7 series HBO show so they can include all the stuff they left out. That’s a little how epic this series is, and I’ll see your 25 years and raise it another 25.
Who called the Neverending story epic? You could fit the box office of that movie into the shoe of the box office of just the first Harry Potter movie. What a ridiculous comparison.
I doubt you know what epic means.
Here is a defintion, “extending beyond the usual or ordinary especially in size or scope”. Saying it is epic has nothing to do with it being a classic(which harry potter is, on a side note). You must be confused.
@Max: since when does a film’s earnings make it epic? I’d think it had more to do with the actual movie…
I honestly can’t imagine HP being irrelevant 25 years from now. The impact these books have had on our culture is enormous, and their quality is something I think will stand the test of time. Then again, what do I know?
Don’t forget that was released in June when people didn’t have to be at school or work the next day.
Watch that figure not matter by weekend’s end. Tonight/saturday/sunday will have it beat Eclipse.
No 3-D and it still made 24 million!!
It did extremely well and it will probably do even better in the long run.
No doubt. I think it could pass Sorcerer’s Stone, which currently is the highest grossing HP film.
HBP got really really close crossing the billion dollar mark and a lot of fans didn’t like that one. Most of the fans seem to really love DH part one, so I think it will definitely pass HBP.
Twilight opened in the summer when kids didnt have to go to school the next day. Harry Potter’s midnight opening is extremely good.
Deathly Hallows is still going to outgross it in the long run-both foreign and domestic sales.
It always does.
Harry Potter > Twilight
Hermione > Bella
Let’s just admit it to ourselves. Sure, Kristen Stewart has her days, but Emma Watson has more. We’ve seen her grow from a frizzy-haired snob into a wide-eyed witch, and sure, she’s still a bit bossy, but isn’t that the best part? No one likes a pathetic girl throws herself at guys. Everyone wants a chase. That’s the world we live in. We want what we can’t have, and Hermione is willing to not let us have her. She’s willing to play her little witch games. Poor Ron Weasley is left wondering, “is she mental?” while poor Edward Cullen is stuck in a relationship I’m pretty sure he regrets.
I hate to make this comparison, but if you’ve seen twilight and how Bella reacts when she sees Edward after he ditches her for like 10 months and then compare that to how Hermione reacts when Ron comes back after leaving them…that right there should be enough to demonstrate just how strong Hermione is compared to Bella. She’s not going to run into his arms and make out with him. She’s going to beat the crap out of him and tell him how wrong he was and still not completely forgive him. I love Hermione. She’s awesome and Emma’s portrayal of her was brilliant in this film!
Agreed. Hermione was all kinds of awesome in Deathly Hallows. So very brave and dedicated. And Emma Watson was fantastic.
Emma Watson really stood out, you’re both so right. There were so many random moments where her face alone made me laugh – for instance, at the Lovegood’s when they’re drinking tea, she is even blurred out in the background but you can see her expression, and it is priceless. Actually I thought all the kids stepped up their game in this movie.
Amen!