Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has posted a $79.5 million opening weekend, according to Warner Bros.' estimate released on Sunday. The movie's daily box office was an estimated $26.8 million on Friday, $29.2 million on Saturday and $23.4 million on Sunday -- and represents a remarkable level of consistency over the first five days in release, after a huge performance at midnight screenings on Wednesday. The five-day total of $159.7 million is a new record for the franchise at this stage of a run (see comparison chart for Harry Poter Movies), although it does leave the movies somewhat behind the blistering early pace of The Dark Knight and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs had a good third weekend, falling 36% to $17.7 million for second place. The Hangover also continued its remarkable run with a drop of only 16% to $8.3 million. Brüno, meanwhile, crashed 77% to a second weekend $8.4 million, and looks as though it will have a short-lived run in theaters after brilliant marketing took it to a huge opening weekend.

In limited release, Fox Searchlight had a great weekend with (500) Days of Summer, which earned $838,000 from 27 theaters for an average over $30,000. It should be expanding aggressively over the next few weeks.

- Weekend Estimates

Date posted: 2009-07-19