'HALF-BLOOD PRINCE' SHATTERS MIDNIGHT DEBUT RECORD WITH $22.2M (HWD)

By Paul Dergarabedian

"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" has set a new midnight-opening record of $22.2 million in 3,003 locations. The Warner Bros. release surpassed the same studio's previous midnight record set by "The Dark Knight" when it opened this same week last year with $18.5 million in midnight and wee-hours screenings.

"TDK" went on to gross nearly $67.2 million for the full day including initial 12:01 a.m. and early morning showings.

This massive debut portends potentially record-breaking numbers for a single-day gross and five-day tally as well.

The year's highest grossing movie, Paramount's "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" earned $16 million in midnighters which led to the second-biggest single day gross in history of $62 million and a first-five-days gross of $200 million.

The last Potter installment, 2007's "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," took in $139.7 million in its first five days (Wednesday-Sunday). Because "Half-Blood Prince" appears to have even greater momentum and its reviews have been the strongest for any film in the franchise, that means that word-of-mouth will almost certainly be strong and will propel the grosses upward rather than the more typical trend in the other direction.

HOLLYWOOD.COM BOX-OFFICE
TOP 4 Midnight Screening Figures

Sorted by Gross
No.1 HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE (WB)
$22,200,000 / ???? -- Midnight / Full day
Wed. 12:01am 7/15/2009

No.2 THE DARK KNIGHT (WB)
$18,500,000 / $67,165,092 - Midnight / Full Day
Wed. 12:01am 7/18/2008

No. 3 STAR WARS: EPSIODE III - REVENGE OF THE SITH (FOX)
$16,900,000 / $50,013,859 -- Midnight / Full Day
Thurs. 12:01am 5/19/2005

No. 4 TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN (PAR)
$16,000,000 / $62,016,476 -- Midnight / Full Day
Wed. 12:01am 6/24/2009