Worldwide, "Deathly Hallows: Part 2" topped $475 million in a matter of days, putting it on course to become the franchise's first billion-dollar worldwide hit.
"This will be the biggest 'Harry Potter' by far," said Dan Fellman, head of domestic distribution at Warner Bros. "A billion dollars is definitely going to happen."
The current franchise high is $974.8 million worldwide, for the first film, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," 10 years ago.
"Deathly Hallows: Part 2" does have the advantage of 3-D screenings, which cost a few dollars more than 2-D shows. Because of the higher 3-D price, plus regular inflation, "Deathly Hallows: Part 2" sold fewer tickets but took in more money than "The Dark Knight" over opening weekend.
Overall domestic revenue for the weekend totaled $263 million, a record for a nonholiday weekend, according to box-office tracker Hollywood.com.
The "Harry Potter" finale also set a record for best opening day domestically Friday with $92.1 million, nearly $20 million ahead of the previous high for "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" two years ago.
Other records for "Deathly Hallows: Part 2": best domestic gross for debut midnight shows at $43.5 million, topping the $30 million for last year's "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse"; best domestic opening in huge-screen IMAX theaters with $15.5 million, surpassing the $12.2 million for last year's "Alice in Wonderland"; and best worldwide IMAX debut with $23.5 million, beating the $20.4 million for "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" two weeks ago.
"This is just really a monumental event," said Hollywood.com analyst Paul Dergarabedian. "The 3-D component, plus the IMAX, plus it being the last 'Harry Potter,' it was just this convergence of things that created this incredible record."
Paramount's third "Transformers" blockbuster, which had been No. 1 the previous two weekends, slipped to second place with $21.3 million domestically. It remains the year's top domestic hit with $302.8 million.
The weekend's other new wide release, Disney's animated family flick "Winnie the Pooh," got swamped by "Potter" mania. A return to the hand-drawn animation style of earlier adaptations of A.A. Milne's beloved storybook characters, "Winnie the Pooh" pulled in just $8 million domestically, finishing at No. 6.
Woody Allen hit a milestone as his romance "Midnight in Paris" pulled in $1.9 million to raise its domestic total to $41.8 million, a personal revenue record for the filmmaker. The Sony Pictures Classics release beat Allen's previous high of $40.1 million for 1986's "Hannah and Her Sisters."
Factoring in today's higher admission prices, "Hannah and Her Sisters" and other earlier Allen hits such as "Annie Hall" sold far more tickets than "Midnight in Paris."
