Harry Potter

To the surprise of no one not turned to stone by a basilisk, the final film installment of the Harry Potter series has done mega-magic at the box office. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 racked up a domestic gate of $168.6 million from Friday to Sunday, according to distributor Warner Bros. That beat the record $158.4 million set in 2008 by the Batman film, The Dark Knight , also from Warner Bros. The film is the eighth and last in the series based on the novels by J. K. Rowling.

Ashlee McClease hadn't slept in hours. Listen to her rapid-fire speech - jumping among sadness, euphoria, and nostalgia - and it was clear she had been anxious. "I've been crying for days," she said Friday afternoon. "I'm just shaking. " Why all the anxiety? Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, naturally - the long-awaited, bittersweet, and final installment in a colossal series. It burst onto screens at 12:01 a.m. Friday, earning a record-breaking $43.5 million in midnight premieres and $2 million on IMAX screens after selling out in advance on Fandango at an unprecedented 6,000 theaters.

For each year in her life, 13-year-old Amy Danoff has read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone twice. "My mom started reading me Harry Potter when the first book came out. I was like 3," Danoff explained excitedly as she waited outside United Artists Riverview Stadium in South Philly for Thursday's much-anticipated midnight premiere of the series' final film. "I've read the first book 26 times. " Danoff and her friend Leah Kramer, also 13, donned their Harry Potter gear and convinced Danoff's father, Theo, to accompany them to the premiere.

Daily News movie critic Gary Thompson has reviewed all 8 Harry Potter films, awarding them grades as high as A ("Deathly Hollows Part Two") and as low as B- ("The Order of the Phoenix"). Here are excerpts from a decade of Potter punditry: HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE (2001): B "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" is loyal and faithful and true, and if movies were dogs, this would be best in show. The $125 million production doesn't preserve everything from J.K. Rowling's beloved book, but it preserves an impressive amount, so much that its legions of devoted young readers will scarcely experience a bump or jolt along the way. . . . What fans of the "Harry Potter" books love is the encounter with a work of inspiration, one that produces its own kind of magic.

Ten years. Eight films. Four directors. It's official: Against all odds, Harry Potter is as stirring a film saga as Lord of the Rings . In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 , the final bow of the boy wizard, his boon friends, and his formidable enemies, director David Yates (who helmed films five through eight) chooses to touch audiences rather than wow them. The finale is a potion that induces euphoria, tinged with melancholy. By now, Daniel Radcliffe's owl-eyed stare, Emma Watson's nostril-flaring incantations, and Rupert Grint's slack-jawed swagger are as familiar as our own kids' facial expressions.

They're getting old and they know it. Millions of Harry Potter fans are at an enviable time in their lives, the point between teenage whimsy and twentysomething optimism. And they certainly have reason to be excited: Come 12:01 a.m. Friday, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 - the eighth and last film in the series - will finally premiere. But fans of the hit series about the brave young wizard can't help but get a little wistful. "[My girlfriend is]

Friday marks the end of an era. Some, like Warner Bros. executive Dan Fellman, compare its finality to the breakup of the Beatles. When Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 , the eighth and presumably final film based on the phenom that has sold 450 million books and close to a billion movie tickets, opens this week in theaters from Lahore to Los Angeles, it will be twilight in the Potterverse. No more pajama-clad kids lining up at midnight to buy the new Harry volume.

1. (a) Elder Wand. 2. (b) Harry's Cloak of Invisibility. 3. (d) George and Fred. 4. (c) Diary of Tom Riddle, the student who became Lord Voldemort. 5. (c) Black-stoned ring owned by Riddle's granddaddy Marvolo Gaunt. 6. (b) Sword of Gryffindor. 7. (b) Ginny Weasley, Ron's sister. 8. (d) Bellatrix Lestange. 9. (d) Prophecy contains all of the above. 10. (a) Snape tells Voldemort when Harry will be moved.

Nearly a dozen years have gone by since the first Harry Potter book ascended best-seller lists, and nearly a decade have passed since it become a movie. Finally on Friday, after an intermission of more than seven months, the last film in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 finishes the story of the series' seventh and concluding novel. So fans can be forgiven if they're fuzzy or confused about a lot of details. Herewith, then, is a Harry Potter quiz that should serve like a refresher course at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.