Wiki News/Harry Potter Box Office Passes $144 Million for Deathly Hallows

The Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows box office receipts are still climbing nicely, as the film passed the $144 million mark domestically on Tuesday night. That's $144 million in just five days of release, with Tuesday also marking another day of double-digit returns.

From just Tuesday showings of the film, Harry Potter 7 made $10.2 million in the U.S., which is an extremely good return for a Tuesday movie. Most returns that reach double digits have to be on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, but Harry Potter is still drawing a lot of people during the week.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part One) opened to $125 million over the weekend, making it one of the highest-grossing opening weekends of all time. It didn't quite keep up with the two recent Twilight series releases, but getting into the top 10 is a pretty respectable accomplishment. Now the film will head into Thanksgiving week, which is expected to allow quite a few people to make it into the theaters to catch up on fall films they might have missed due to work or school. That should easily push Harry Potter 7 past the $200 million mark by next Monday.

Worldwide, Deathly Hallows has just passed the $349 million mark (with $205 million in foreign box office receipts), making it a good bet that this film could eventually strike that $1 billion level that has only ever been reached by a few films. This is definitely what Warner Brothers was hoping for when they split up the final Harry Potter book into two films, and if these numbers are any indication, the eighth film (due out in 2011) will probably surpass the seventh when it comes to total numbers. Now the question becomes how long Harry Potter 7 can hold on to the top spot at the box office.

There is going to be a lot of competition in the box office for the second weekend in U.S. release, with Burlesque, Love & Other Drugs, Faster, and Tangled all opening. Tangled will aim for the younger audiences, while Love & Other Drugs will go after the fans of romantic comedies. Megamind and Unstoppable are also both still in theaters, so this upcoming weekend could really turn into huge business for theater owners. As for Jane Hoop Elementary: The Final Rush: Part 1, it will also still be in theaters, by expanding nearly 300 theaters to 4,485 theaters, becoming the laregest number on theaters ever since The Twilight Saga: Eclipse whith 4,468 theaters. Will any of these films come even close to what Harry Potter 7 is grossing, though? We will have to wait to find that out.