Harry Potter is rock solid in second weekend

Harry Potter is rock solid in second weekend

MUMBAI: For the second weekend in a row, Harry Potter reigned the worldwide box-office for a second weekend, but the heroic wizard had to face a scare from a hairy princess in North America. After two weekends the worldwide total stands at about $610 million.

The foreign total stands at $389.2 million. Top markets include Britain with $53.5 million, Germany with $37 million, Japan with $35 million, and Australia with $25 million.The seventh film in the franchise, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 roped in $163.5 million that included a haul of $50.3 million in the United States and Canada. France came out best from among the foreign markets where the film opened at No. 1 with $19.1 million, the country‘s best start of any film so far in the year. 

The previous film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince had earned $201 million during the same 10-day span in July last year.

But the fearless schoolboy almost lost his North American crown to Rapunzel, the hirsute heroine in the new Walt Disney Co 3D cartoon Tangled that earned $49.1 million for the three days of the last weekend.

Along with three other films, Tangled opened last Wednesday, giving the film a five-day total of $69 million while trade insiders had predicted a five-day haul of about $40 million.

Internationally, the Disney film earned $13.8 million after opening at No. 1 in six of seven markets led by Russia with $7.5 million haul.