It'll be hard to do an apples-to-apples comparison on the ridiculous amounts of money that Transformers: Dark Of The Moon and Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, Part II will make when the latter film comes out, since DOTM had the benefit of opening on a Tuesday and then rolling through to a holiday weekend, but Deathly Hallows isn't going to sit back and let Transformers stand unchallenged. Warner Bros. issued a press release today claiming that the $32 million in pre-release ticket sales is the new all-time record for a film that hasn't opened yet, and it's reached that landmark with at least a day to spare, meaning that it already has an amount of money that most films would be happy to gross in their lifetime before you can even go see it.
Take it from me, kids; if you want to go see this movie at midnight tomorrow, you're probably already out of luck, if San Francisco is any indication. Our local theater has sold out fifteen different screenings of the movie, leading this intrepid reporter to choose to see it at 3:30 AM, of all things. If you don't like paying the surcharge to pre-order tickets, you shouldn't have too many problems finding another showing this weekend sometime; the movie is opening on over 11,000 screens, with 274 of those being IMAX.
So, who wants to hazard a guess at how much goddamn money this movie's going to make this weekend? It's currently floating up at 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, so it's not like the reviews are going to be bad; one has to imagine that word of mouth is going to be pretty stellar, as well. The biggest opening for the series thus far is Deathly Hallows, Part I with $125 million last year; I'm betting this bad boy tops out at around $140 million for the three days, considering not only a little 3D bump, but also the fact that it's the last movie in the franchise. Put your guesses in the comments!
I honestly wouldn't be surprised to see $150m plus. As ridiculous as that sounds, combine "last movie-itis" with the fact it is Harry Potter and ridiculously good reviews, and I think it has a shot.
160 million opening
I'm shooting for the moon. 200m first three days.
I'd like to see the Whiskey Media betting pool numbers for this. Sure to be completely off!
@bgbball31: I'm with ya on 150+m. Everyone I know who have only really read the books are going to see this one.
ill go with 175 man i wish my theater was screening part 1 before part 2
150+
I will go for 125 million
One of my local midnight screenings was already sold out last Saturday. Regardless, I have my seats already for Saturday at 7. Looking forward to it,
It has to beat $158 M to take the record for this weekend right? The $158M being from Dark Knight?
Summer $380M (Domestically) $1.1 Billion (Overall)
@circle said:
yep. I don't know the trends of releases overseas, where they are opening up at or when. I think most folks here that follow domestic box office numbers can give some rough estimate.
I'll say it will make at least 150 million this weekend and would not be surprised if it hit 200 million.
150 mil.