Los Angeles – Harry Potter remains a box-office charmer.
The Warner Bros. fantasy sequel “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” conjured up a $77.4 million debut to lead the weekend box office, according to studio estimates today.
That raised the movie’s total domestic gross to $140 million since opening Wednesday.
“Order of the Phoenix” also has taken in an additional $190.3 million in 44 other countries where it began rolling out Wednesday.
“Transformers,” the DreamWorks-Paramount sci-fi tale that was the previous weekend’s No. 1 movie, slipped to second place with $36 million, lifting its total to $223 million.
The weekend’s other new wide release, the grisly horror story “Captivity” from Lionsgate and After Dark Films, opened out of the top 10 with $1.55 million, coming in at No. 12. The movie stars Elisha Cuthbert as a model who is abducted and tortured.
The previous four “Harry Potter” flicks all had bigger first weekends, ranging from $88.4 million to $102.7 million, but those all debuted on a Friday. “Order of the Phoenix” was the first to get a jump on the weekend with a Wednesday opening.
“We’re in the middle of summer, and we just said why not, because kids are out of school,” said Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner Bros. “It certainly turned out to be the right decision.”
“Order of the Phoenix” did more business in five days than each of the first three “Harry Potter” movies did in their first full week, and it nearly matched the $146 million first week total of the fourth film, “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” Fellman said.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through today at U.S. and Canadian theaters:
1. “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” $77.4 million.
2. “Transformers,” $36 million.
3. “Ratatouille,” $18 million.
4. “Live Free or Die Hard,” $10.9 million.
5. “License to Wed,” $7.4 million.
6. “1408,” $5.01 million.
7. “Evan Almighty,” $5 million.
8. “Knocked Up,” $3.7 million.
9. “Sicko,” $2.65 million.
10. “Ocean’s Thirteen,” $1.9 million.
