Harry Potter Box Office Magic

The movie 'Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix" is breaking box office records around the world! J.K. Rowling's boy wizard has surely cast a spell on movie goers everywhere. According to the BoxOfficeMojo.com website, 55% of movie goers this weekend saw Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix"

Here are some more magical stats and records for you:

MSNBC.com reports: "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" took in $44.8 million in its first day, the best single-day gross ever for a movie on a Wednesday.
That included $12 million from screenings that started at midnight Tuesday!

USAToday.com reports: Box office for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix since Wednesday's opening: $140 million.

Reuters in the UK reports: "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," the fifth film about the boy wizard, set a new British box office opening record over the weekend, taking 16.4 million pounds, Screen International said on Tuesday. Including Thursday previews, it was the highest-ever four-day weekend take in UK history. Taken over just Friday to Sunday it took 13.0 million, a figure which has only ever been beaten by one other film -- its predecessor "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," in November 2005.

BoxOfficeMojo.com reports current box office totals as of July 15, 2007:
Domestic: $139,715,157 42.0%
+ Foreign: $193,000,000 58.0%
= Worldwide: $332,715,157

DOMESTIC SUMMARY For The Order of the Phoenix:
Opening Weekend: $77,108,414
4,285 theaters, $17,994 average

More Harry Potter News by the Numbers-

The First 4 Movies:

$1.175 billion total U.S. box office for the first four films since 2001.

Books:
121.5 million in print in the USA for first six books. First printing for seventh and final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: 12 million.

And according to the Motley Fool website, As of July16, 2007, Amazon.com alone has received over 1.3 million pre-orders for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The company guarantees release-date delivery to anyone who orders by noon on July 17th, so expect that number -- updated hourly on its Muggle Counter -- to keep inching higher. Globally, Amazon has received more than 2.1 million pre-orders.

Merchandise:
$18.8 million spent in USA on cookies, candy, gum since June 2002. Dozens of products available, including bookmarks ($3.49), Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans ($3.99), Harry Potter action figures ($12.99), Harry Potter's wand ($5.95), the Sorting Hat ($39.99), and Harry Potter Costumes (starting at $19.95).

Harry Potter theme park:
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter will be built on 20 acres within Universal Orlando Resort's Islands of Adventure theme park. Opens in late 2009.

It is so easy to get lost in the world of Harry Potter, it is fascinating, mystical, magical, captivating and one of the best written stories I have ever read.