Magic money: Midnight hour strikes with record-breaking $22.2 million for ‘Harry Potter’
By APWednesday, July 15, 2009
Midnight hour strikes with $22M for ‘Harry Potter’
LOS ANGELES — Harry Potter has conjured up a record-breaking witching hour.
Warner Bros. says “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” took in $22.2 million domestically from midnight screenings. That breaks the record set by another Warner blockbuster, “The Dark Knight,” which grossed $18.5 million from midnight showings last summer.
The sixth installment in the “Harry Potter” franchise also topped the midnight haul of this year’s biggest hit, “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.” The “Transformers” sequel pulled in $16 million from midnight screenings on its first day in June.
And the new adventure of the teen wizard raked in $10 million more from midnight screenings than part five, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.”
