Deathly Hallows, Part 1 of the two-part finale of the Harry Potter series, has topped the U.S. box office charts for its opening weekend with a record earnings of $125.1 million.
The new record has surpassed the previous one set in 2005 when Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire earned $102.7 million in its opening weekend. However, Deathly Hallows had approximately the same number of viewers as Goblet of Fire and Sorcerer’s Stone from 2001, so the higher earnings are merely a result of more expensive tickets. Deathly Hallows, like those two films, was viewed by 16 million spectators during the same period. The second part of the film is set to hit theaters in July 2011. The Harry Potter films have earned over $5.5 billion to date. The seven books by J.K. Rowling, on which the films are based, have sold over 400 million copies and have been translated into 69 languages. (www.hrt.hr)
