'Harry Potter' earns $169.2M in opening weekend

From Brandon Gray's analysis of the weekend's record-setting debut of the last "Harry Potter" installment.

Working its final movie mojo, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 soared into the record books with the highest-grossing opening weekend ever. The series finale drew $169.2 million on around 11,100 screens at 4,375 locations, dethroning The Dark Knight's $158.4 million.

Deathly Hallows Part 2's first weekend flew past the previous franchise high of $125 million, posted by Deathly Hallows Part 1 last November, and it topped the franchise in terms of estimated attendance as well. While its opening gross also out-distanced The Dark Knight, Spider-Man 3 ($151.1 million), The Twilight Saga: New Moon ($142.8 million), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest ($135.6 million) and the first Spider-Man ($114.8 million), Deathly Hallows Part 2's estimated opening attendance was less than those titles, ranking sixth overall.

After conjuring the opening day record of $91.1 million on Friday (buoyed by a record-shattering $43.5 million midnight launch), Deathly Hallows Part 2 saw the steepest Friday-to-Saturday drop on record for a non-holiday first weekend, falling 53 percent to $42.4 million. Its Saturday slotted ninth among the top-grossing Saturdays of all time. On Sunday, it declined 16 percent to $35.7 million, which ranked fourth on the all-time Sunday grosses chart.

Read more at BoxOfficeMojo.com