From Deadline:

FRIDAY 10 AM, 3RD UPDATE: Post-midnight screenings of Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, Part 1 made $24 million from 3,700 North American locations today. That's a record for the franchise which has taken in nearly $5.5 billion in worldwide revenue, the most successful movie franchise in box office history. The previous midnight Harry Potter record was the sixth installment with $22M. (For midnight screenings of HP7A in 238 IMAX theaters in North America, the $1.436 million tally beat IMAX’s previous midnight record grosses of $1.036 million from the Twilight Saga: Eclipse.) "This is off to a huge start with $11M already reported for Friday matinees," a Warner Bros executive emails me. The studio believes that HP7A could open to a whopping $135M by Sundays's end.

THURSDAY 7 PM, 2ND UPDATE: I'm told that as of 6 PM tonight advance sales were $35 million for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1.

THURSDAY 4 PM UPDATE:With only a few hours to go before its 12:01 AM Friday premiere, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 is past $30 million in advance sales and may be looking at $60 million for Friday's opening day and a 3-day debut weekend total of $130+ million. Maybe even $150M. Yowza! The last 2 Harry Potter films both had weekend grosses of $77M each. "We will EASILY pass $100M for our opening FSS this time around,' a Warner Bros executive tells me. Meanwhile, the picture has already leaped over previous record-holders to become giant online ticketseller Fandango's top Harry Potter advance ticket-seller in Fandango's 10-year history, and the overall 3rd best pre-seller in company history following only Summit's Twilight Saga: New Moon and Twilight Saga: Eclipse. It has bested Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. This #7A latest in the HP franchise currently represents 97% of today’s ticket sales and more than 3,000 showtimes are already sold out in cities and towns across the country. I hear theater owners are scrambling to add new midnight and 3:15 AM showtimes to meet the fan demand.

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Damn.

didn't the second twilight have like a 145 open weekend

Probably, but this will likely make more worldwide, and $135m opening for the 7th film in a series is pretty damn impressive.

I see a difference between this being a Part 7 and say Saw 7. The HP series has been building to this from the beginning, more and more people get on the train with each movie knowing that it's going somewhere.

A $135m opening for any film is amazing.

The difference is that this will have legs.

Potter movies generally crap out around $275-300m, same as Twilight 2 & 3, though this one might do slightly better.

You do understand that this is (well, part one of) the final film in the series, right? This will have more legs than the other Potter films.

The other difference? This won't suck.

Agreed. And was just thinking about this today.....I bet the last film will have the biggest opening of all in the series and gross the most overall.

I could not agree more. It's so great to have a new Harry Potter film, too!

Heard nothing buy great reviews for this movie, looking forward to it.

The take on it from BOM:

Friday Report: Seventh 'Harry Potter' Logs Franchise-Best First Day

Ah yes, much of the DVD Talk male demographic can't abide a book/movie series targeted at girls/women. How dare the Twilight franchise be successful?!

I thought New Moon was a decent movie that captured the book, which I also liked, quite well. It didn't "suck". But, then, I like romances and for three and a half decades my favorite book has been Pride and Prejudice—the greatest romance novel ever written.

Different strokes for different folks.

I've encountered a great many woman who loathe Twilight and all the crazy Mormon mores that the series contains.

No, the film-loving demographic of DVD Talk cannot abide a film series so poorly written, directed, and acted.

Thank you for saying this. I was going to post the same thing, and then I saw your post.

You know, when did it become so acceptable to bash Mormons? Substitute 'Jewish' or 'Catholic' in there and people would be in an uproar...

Just out of curiosity, which famous movie series can you name that promote Jewish or catholic mores? And have there been uproars over someone bashing them?

Does The Passion count for crazy Catholic mores? If so, I remember lots of people bashing it.

Yeah I think you're missing the point here...

Every Potter film has more or less grossed north of $800 million worldwide. Azkaban did $795. Chamber of Secrets did $878. Goblet of Fire did $895. The other 3 all did over $900. I wouldn't be surprised if BOTH part 7's go over $1 billion worldwide.

The first Twilight did about $400 and the next two did about $700 each. Great numbers for sure, but nobody should be comparing Twilight to Potter.

They do seem have roughly the same level of domestic popularity, but the worldwide popularity isn't even a contest.

Off-Topic.

There's a difference between bashing actual people and bashing the silly things that they believe. If people don't want to be laughed at, they shouldn't believe stupid stuff.

On-Topic.

I've never been able to get into the HP movies. My girlfriend and her son love the books, but the movies have lead me to have no interest whatsoever in reading them. When watching the movies at home, I have to take a break in the middle of each one to avoid falling asleep; I seldom get the urge to sleep during movies, so that's saying something.

Weekend Estimates:

1 N Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 WB $125,120,000 - 4,125 - $30,332 $125,120,000 - 1
2 1 Megamind P/DW $16,175,000 -44.5% 3,779 -170 $4,280 $109,476,000 $130 3
3 2 Unstoppable Fox $13,100,000 -42.3% 3,209 +2 $4,082 $41,962,000 $100 2
4 3 Due Date WB $9,150,000 -40.7% 3,229 -136 $2,834 $72,669,000 $65 3
5 N The Next Three Days LGF $6,750,000 - 2,564 - $2,633 $6,750,000 - 1
6 5 Morning Glory Par. $5,233,000 -43.1% 2,544 +26 $2,057 $19,856,000 $40 2
7 4 Skyline Uni. $3,431,000 -70.7% 2,883 +3 $1,190 $17,643,000 $10 2
8 7 Red Sum. $2,467,000 -50.4% 2,034 -844 $1,213 $83,574,000 $58 6
9 6 For Colored Girls LGF $2,400,000 -63.2% 1,216 -911 $1,974 $34,540,000 $21 3
10 15 Fair Game (2010) Sum. $1,470,000 +44.0% 386 +211 $3,808 $3,739,000 $22 3
11 11 Secretariat BV $962,000 -56.4% 1,010 -1,009 $952 $56,368,000 $35 7
12 8 Paranormal Activity 2 Par. $926,000 -68.9% 1,101 -1,302 $841 $83,564,000 $3 5
13 12 The Social Network Sony $925,000 -47.7% 571 -517 $1,620 $89,234,000 $50 8
14 19 127 Hours FoxS $915,000 +108.6% 108 +86 $8,472 $1,900,000 $18 3
15 9 Saw 3D LGF $820,000 -71.4% 806 -1,170 $1,017 $45,261,000 $20 4
16 10 Jackass 3-D Par. $723,000 -67.7% 687 -920 $1,052 $116,080,000 $20 6
17 14 Life as We Know It WB $525,000 -59.4% 558 -681 $941 $51,620,000 $38 7
- 17 The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest MBox $413,000 -20.6% 185 -23 $2,232 $3,444,000 - 4
- 18 Inside Job SPC $371,000 -22.5% 185 -65 $2,005 $2,171,000 $2 7
- 13 Hereafter WB $275,000 -79.1% 403 -1,288 $682 $32,175,000 $50 6
- 21 Despicable Me Uni. $272,000 -25.1% 268 -5 $1,015 $249,172,000 $69 20

Guess that demand burned off more quickly than they expected since some estimates had this hitting anywhere from $135-150m. Still, a great # for any film.

I see Red is finally starting to take more sizeable hits, but it had a good run.

Ouch for Skyline.