It’s the end of an era, and it’s going out with a bang worthy of a truckload of magical fireworks from Zonko’s: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows-Part 2 shattered the opening weekend record at the North American box office, industry trackers said on Sunday.
Muggles non-magical people of all ages who flocked to see the final film in the Potter series handed over a collective $168 million. The haul is $10 million more the previous opening weekend record of $158-million set in 2008 by the Batman film The Dark Knight. DH-2 had already raked in a record $92.1 million in opening day sales, smashing the previous record by The Twilight Saga: New Moon, which took $72.7 million in 2009.
In the finale, released in both 2D and 3D versions, Potter takes on the evil Lord Voldemort in a showdown at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It is the second of two movies based on the final book of the Potter series by British author J K Rowling.
Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert GrintPotter, Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley respectively are accompanied by a cast of big-name British actors that include Alan Rick-man as Severus Snape, Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort, and Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange.
