Weekend Receipts: Harry Potter Ends It All for the Competition

Harry Potter claimed his rightful place atop the weekend box office, and how: Shattering box office records and unseating Transformers: Dark of the Moon, the closing chapter of the boy wizard's magical saga topped The Dark Knight, Spider-Man, and The Twilight Saga: New Moon as the biggest weekend opener of all time. Cue the celebratory wizard rock jam!

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Pt. 2

Gross: $168,550,000 (new)

Screens: 4,375 (PSA: $38,526)

Weeks: 1

Take that, Transformers! Stealing Michael Bay's box office-topping thunder this weekend were Harry Potter and Co. in their final screen outing, a film event that shattered records left and right as fans came out in legions to watch It All End. Deathly Hallows - Pt. 2's $168.5M opening weekend estimate earned the crown of highest opening weekend take of all time, topping Part 1's $128M, with 43 percent of sales coming from 3-D, and by Sunday grossed an estimated $475.5M worldwide.

2. Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Gross: $21,250,000 ($302,800,000)

Screens: 3,917 (PSA: $5,425)

Weeks: 3 (change -54.9%)

Even with a nearly 55 percent drop-off from last weekend, Transformers: Dark of the Moon managed to attract a decent $21.1M from the folks who weren't at Harry Potter, bringing it across the $300M mark. Also attracting decent numbers in the shadow of Potter was...

3. Horrible Bosses

Gross: $17,630,000 ($60,002,000)

Screens: 3,134 (PSA: $5,625)

Weeks: 2 (change: -37.7%)

Seth Gordon's R-rated black comedy Horrible Bosses, which brought its total gross to $60M in a respectable third place showing, considering the blockbuster competition. And, let's be honest: Weren't we all rooting for it to beat Kevin James' talking animal movie? Hurrah for the small victories!

4. Zookeeper

Gross: $12,300,000 ($42,352,000)

Screens: 3,482 (PSA: $3,532)

Weeks: 2 (change: -38.7%)

And yet, $12.3M worth of family audiences went to see James learn life lessons from gorillas. Sigh.

5. Cars 2

Gross: $8,344,000 ($165,326,000)

Screens: 3,249 (PSA: $2,568)

Weeks: 4 (change: -45.1%)

Pixar's rare critical dud held on to round out the top five, but it's losing steam fast. It only narrowly beat out Disney newcomer Winnie the Pooh, which earned $8M with a higher per-screen average. In the face of franchise fatigue and slick CG, will audiences find their way to this nostalgic charmer in the coming weeks?

[Numbers via Box Office Mojo]