Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY -- The final installment of the Harry Potter film series will hit theaters at 12:01 am Friday morning and millions around the world are desperately trying to sit still waiting for the clock to strike 12. The film franchise has been going strong for a decade now and it's picked up fans and an insane amount of money along the way.
The first film, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" was released in 2001 and was an instant hit. The film made over 90 million dollars the first weekend and pulled in more than 300 million domestically over its theatrical run. All of the films since have been wildly successful, but surprisingly enough, none of them have made as much money as Harry's big screen debut. The last film may be the one to break the first film's record.
I looked at one theater, Jordan Commons in Sandy, to get an idea of the kind of money the film could be making the first night. The megaplex is running 15 shows between midnight and two am and they are all sold out. A rough estimate of how many seats those theaters hold and ticket prices, Jordan Commons has already sold around $67-thousand dollars worth of tickets. That's at one theater in Sandy, Utah and just over a two hour period, now, times that number by all the theaters in the U.S. and worldwide.
The film is debuting on 30,500 screens globally. If we give the film a high estimate and say all of the theaters sold out, which is very likely, and they were half the size of the largest theater at Jordan Commons, and tickets were sold for $8.75 a piece, the film would make nearly $77 million. That's not including the inflated price of 3D tickets and IMAX 3D tickets.
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: $974,733,350
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: $878,643,482
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: $795,634,069
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: $895,921,036
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: $938,212,738
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: $933,959,197
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1: $955,001,070
The Associated Press has reported that "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2" has already made $43.6 million in 26 countries outside of the U.S. Studio executives said Thursday the franchise finale had the biggest opening day ever in several countries, including Australia with $7.5 million, Italy with $4.6 million, and Sweden with $2.1 million. In France, the studio said "Deathly Hallows: Part 2" had the biggest Wednesday opening ever at $7.1 million.
The series overall has become the most successful film franchise in history. To give you an idea of the kind of money we're talking about here, the least successful Potter film was the third installment, "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban." The film made nearly $800 million dollars worldwide. Yes, I said that was the least successful. Not bad numbers for being a "dud."
Overall the films have made approximately $6,372,105,142. I know, when I added that up it nearly broke my phone and my brain. Even if you subtract the super high budgets of the films from the overall take the franchise has still made over $4 billion. With that kind of money it's pretty clear why the filmmakers went against traditional convention and turned the last book in to two films. More Potter movies = more money. The Twilight series even followed suit and split their last film into two parts.
No wonder Warner Bros. is desperately trying to find the next big franchise. In fact, every studio is trying to. That's why we're seeing pushes for teen book series like, "Percy Jackson", "I am Number Four" and the upcoming "The Hunger Games." But will anything ever touch Potter? and if so, what?
Tell us on Facebook and our comment boards what other series may one day dethrone the boy wizard as the king of Hollywood.
E-mail: jclyde@ksl.com
