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Goodbye, Harry.

Kim Hollis: Do you think that the final Harry Potter film will break the opening weekend record?

Josh Spiegel: Clearly, it's possible, all the more so when we see how much the opening weekend for Part One grew on the opening weekend for Half-Blood Prince. What Part Two needs to top the record is for enough people to actually want to see Part Two; I saw the movie with a friend who's only seen the movies, and he admitted he felt kind of lost at various points. Will the people who see Part One who may not have read the books want to see Part Two? Will the curiosity factor that may have boosted Part One's opening weekend cross over? Again, it's possible, but there's not a huge precedence for Harry Potter to do THAT well.

Bruce Hall: If we're talking about the $158 million earned by The Dark Knight in 2008, I think it is entirely possible. It is easy to forget but the hype around The Dark Knight was insane. Even asleep in bed at night, I could still hear people gushing over that film. Even Avatar - which went on to earn more money than God - only managed just under an $80 million opening, if I remember correctly.

The hype around the final installment of the Potter franchise will be deafening, in ways that I am not sure we're all ready to experience. Part 1 of Deathly Hallows is earning high praise from all quarters, so it is reasonable to expect Part 2 to resonate as well or even better with audiences and critics.

They sky is the limit, if you ask me.





Brett Beach: As has been noted, they could, can, and will, unless they make the bonehead move to open it on Wednesday. I actually think they should really set the hysteria to its final fever pitch and not have any midnight screenings. Pressed for figures, I'll call it $38 million at midnight, $80 million opening day and $165 million Friday through Sunday. As the first film did nearly ten years earlier, it will hold the opening weekend record. Putting myself out on a limb: The record will stand . . . and will not be supplanted by The Dark Knight Rises.

David Mumpower: Yes.

I was tempted to make that my entire answer, but the longer explanation is this. If Warner Bros. wants the record, they can have it, assuming they still have it when the final Potter movie is released. The tricky aspect here is that they already do have it since they distributed The Dark Knight as well. There is a thought process that maybe they won't push as hard as a competing studio would. I don't buy it, though. They would love the bragging rights of having the top two openings of all time and I see the demand for Potter rising to an unprecedented crescendo. The Potter film franchise encapsulates a decade of movie-going from 2001-2011. This is the brass ring of box office. Expecting a $35 million opening weekend spike from one film to the next is ordinarily a dicey proposition. The final Potter movie is different. It will SHATTER box office records.
Matthew Huntley: No, because I can't see Deathly Hallows Part 2 making $35 million more than Part 1I to overtake The Dark Knight's current opening weekend record. If Part 2 had come closer, I would have said yes.

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