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Weekend Receipts: Harry Potter Is Bathing In Goblin Gold With A $125 Million Opening Weekend

    • It didn't come close to beating The Dark Knight's opening weekend record, but somehow I think the braintrust behind the Harry Potter films is perfectly satisfied with its opening weekend gross of $125 million, the second largest opening of the year behind Iron Man 2. And far, far, far down the list, at number 5 is Russell Crowe's Next Three Days. Chin up, mate! There's always Robin Hood 2! Your weekend receipts are here.

    1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

    Gross: $125,120,000 (new)

    Screens: 4,125 (PSA: $30,332)

    Weeks: 1

    Like I said, it fell well short of The Dark Knight's $158 million opening weekend. But the question I imagine WB execs are asking themselves is, "If we had those jacked-up 3D surcharges, could we have broken the record?" Hmmmm... probably. Part 2, you're our only hope now!

    2. Megamind

    Gross:$16,175,000 ($109,476,000)

    Screens: 3,779 (PSA: $4,280)

    Weeks: 3 (change: -44.5%)

    I literally have nothing to say about this movie, which came and left me like a bad piece of fish. Feel free to leave your deep thoughts, bitchy asides, and predictions of Tina Fey's new asking price in the comments!

    3. Unstoppable

    Gross: $13,100,000 ($41,962,000)

    Screens: 3,209 (PSA: $4,082)

    Weeks: 2 (change: -42.3%)

    You know how much collective fun the box office reporters of the world got to have last weekend when a movie called Unstoppable didn't get to number one? So many bad puns, plays on words and variations on the obvious theme. God, it was heaven.

    4. Due Date

    Gross: $9,150,000 ($72,669,000)

    Screens: 3,229 (PSA: $2,834)

    Weeks: 3 (change: -40.7%)

    Over/under on how quickly a semi-bowdlerized version of this shows up on Spike or TBS? I say it shows its bearded head sometime around Labor Day 2011.

    5. Next Three Days

    Gross: $6,750,000 (new)

    Screens: 2,564 (PSA: $2,633)

    Weeks: 1

    I really want to start a horrible rumor about the Crash Curse, a curse that afflicts anyone involved with the worst Best Picture winner in recent history. Paul Haggis, the director of Next Three Days? Crash Curse! Ryan Phillippe, star of the cataclysmic MacGruber? Crash Curse! Be on your toes, Jennifer Esposito! Beware of the Crash Curse!

    [Numbers via Box Office Mojo]