Originally Posted by The Numbers

Warner Bros. has reported an estimated $58.38 million opening day for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, perhaps slightly lower than expected given the incredible midnight business, but still the fourth-biggest day in history.

After earning $22.5 million in midnight screenings, Half-Blood Prince picked up another $36 million or so during the rest of the day. That figure is well below another Wednesday opener from this Summer, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which earned $46 million during the day after $16 million at midnight. The daytime numbers in that case were presumably helped by people getting off work early for the July 4 weekend. Last year's The Dark Knight earned $48.5 million during its first day, along with $18.5 million at midnight. In its case, daytime grosses were helped by it being a Friday.

The early message seems to be that diehard fans turned out in droves for the midnight screenings, but the majority of the audience is happy to wait a little to see the movie. Expect a drop in box office today (Thursday) to around $30 million and then an increase over the weekend. $200 million by the end of the day on Sunday still looks on the cards, but it'll be close.

Originally Posted by RichC2 (Post 9574121)

???

HP has 2 more movies to go and almost outgrossed Twilight's opening weekend in one day (and will likely beat Twilights entire run by the end of the weekend.)

Originally Posted by Hokeyboy (Post 9574084)

Well, that's it. The HP franchise is over; Twilight is the new rage.

Originally Posted by Fanboy (Post 9574145)

Now, I might be wrong, but I do believe that was a satiric response to the doom and gloom surrounding a $58 million opening day. :lol:

Originally Posted by RichC2 (Post 9574149)

Damn dude, that post was there for less than a minute before I altered it :lol:

Originally Posted by Boba Fett (Post 9574123)

I'm amazed the movies are doing as well as they are. This is the sixth movie in the series and it's still opening to solid numbers. I know there are a lot of fans of the books, but I know many who gave up on the series in its early stages.

Originally Posted by sauce07 (Post 9574162)

Judging that Deathly Hollows sold 44 million copies, I think the movies will continue to do good.

Originally Posted by Boba Fett (Post 9574123)

I'm amazed the movies are doing as well as they are. This is the sixth movie in the series and it's still opening to solid numbers. I know there are a lot of fans of the books, but I know many who gave up on the series in its early stages.

Originally Posted by Ash Ketchum (Post 9574483)

You mean, like, feed the hungry, house the homeless, heal the sick?

Originally Posted by The Bus (Post 9574593)

It's not possible for it to gain new fans as kids grow up, books are released on paperback, the series is finished, the movies air on TV, the movies arrive on DVD, etc?

Originally Posted by Mr. Cinema (Post 9576545)

That's about a 62.5% drop from Wednesday. Just for comparison, TF2 had a 53% drop on day 2, and the last HP film was 58.5%.

Originally Posted by Matthew Chmiel (Post 9576482)

Numbers for Thursday via ShowBizData:

1. HARRY POTTER 6 WARNER BROS. 4,275 21,930,000 5,130 n/a 80,101,000
2. ICE AGE 3 FOX 4,102 3,503,414 854 -37% 134,304,581
3. TRANSFORMERS 2 PARAMOUNT 4,293 2,400,000 559 -48% 350,114,387
4. BRUNO: DELICIOUS JOURNEYS THROUGH AMERICA FOR THE PURPOSE OF MAKING HETEROSEXUAL UNIVERSAL 2,756 1,984,320 720 n/a 41,215,090
5. PROPOSAL, THE DISNEY 3,158 1,440,000 456 -32% 119,784,000
6. HANGOVER, THE WARNER BROS. 3,002 1,244,000 414 -28% 227,553,780
7. PUBLIC ENEMIES UNIVERSAL 3,336 1,203,050 361 -52% 71,890,970
8. MY SISTER'S KEEPER WARNER BROS. 2,444 627,000 257 -45% 38,672,902
9. UP DISNEY 2,201 590,000 268 -41% 276,416,000
10. I LOVE YOU, BETH COOPER FOX 1,858 578,464 311 81% 7,596,376
11. TAKING OF PELHAM 1 2 3, THE SONY 1,116 111,605 100 n/a 62,011,051
12. WHATEVER WORKS SONY 320 95,000 297 n/a 3,635,000

Originally Posted by bunkaroo (Post 9576761)

I also think there is going to be a fair amount of bad word of mouth which will hold it back. We'll see.