Recordus Shatterum! Harry Potter Swan Song Scores Stunning $95 Million Opening Day |

Recordus Shatterum! Harry Potter Swan Song Scores Stunning $95 Million Opening Day

That's not only the highest day in history, but it's 30% higher than the previous record. (Other sources list the total as $92 million, but the distinction is immaterial, given that the previous record was only $72 million.) The Dark Knight, which set and still owns the weekend record, opened at $67 million on Friday.

Note that the massive opening day does not necessarily portend the same kind of phenomenal results in the future. The grosses from the Potter movies and the Twilight movies have been extremely front-loaded in the past. The films in these franchises tend to decline severely after the first day.

New Moon took in $72 million on Friday, the previous all-time record, but had dropped to $27 million by Sunday. It then dropped 70% in week two and another 64% in week three, thus failing to reach $300 million domestically.

The last Potter movie took in $61 million on Friday, but dropped to $25 million by Sunday. It then dropped 60% in week two and 65% in week three. Like New Moon, it failed to reach $300 million.

Before this weekend, those two films were #1 and #5 of all time in the rankings of opening day grosses, but neither of them made the top 35 for total domestic gross.

Having taken note of that, I need to point out that The Dark Knight's record for an opening weekend will almost certainly fall, but it may not get crushed like the single-day record.