Deathly Hallows 2 sets midnight record of $43.5M

Shame the Harry Potter series is ending just when it’s beginning to catch on. Deadline is reporting an astonishing haul of $43.5 million from midnight screenings, a healthy head-start on what’s shaping up to be a $180 million weekend in the US alone.

Domestically, $45 million has been collected already in pre-sales for this opening North America weekend, including $27M for tonight’s 3,000+ midnight screenings which could reach $40M alone. Internationally, $43.6 million has been added from the 24 of 59 countries where the franchise finale opened Wednesday… What these numbers mean is that Warner Bros is on track to break its own Dark Knight domestic opening 3-day weekend record of $158M. Helped by Harry Potter – Part 2’s higher 3D ticket prices, the new pic could reach $180M. “Midnights and Friday will be huge,” a rival studio exec tells me. “The only question will be how front-loaded they are and where they end up. A lot of the international openings Wednesday were records so the total foreign will be huge as well.”

Warner Bros is giving Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows – Part 2 a mega-release into 4,375 theaters and over 11,000 screens in North America alone on Friday. This will make it the widest domestic Harry Potter release of all time. The film will be shown in 3,000 3D locations, which constitutes a motion picture industry record, and on 4,250 3D screens. It will play at 274 IMAX venues, another industry record, as well as 120 Premium Large Format cinemas, also an industry record, and 270 drive-ins, another industry record. When the pic opens at Thursday midnight, Part II will be playing in at least 3,800 theaters. But I’m told that number is climbing by the hour. Already Warner Bros anticipates 300 Harry Potter marathons playing all seven of the movies ending at midnight Thursday with the 8th unreeling. There are 1,100 theaters planning to play HP 7A into 7B that midnight. “We are positioned to exceed the largest Harry Potter opening box office of all time,” a Warner Bros top exec tells me confidently. Remember, it’s already the largest-grossing franchise in motion picture history.