Biggest “Potter” debut works box-office magic

Landing at No. 6 on the all-time opening weekends list, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 1” earned the biggest first-weekend take for a “Potter” film yet. Clearly, fans of all degrees were interested in checking out the beginning of the final chapter of the beloved film franchise. That’s the power of the ending for you. Naturally, no other films came even close.

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 1 – $125 M (weekend) … $125 M (gross)
2. Megamind – $16 M  … $109.3 M
3. Unstoppable – $13 M … $41.8 M
4. Due Date – $8.9 M … $72.4 M
5. The Next Three Days – $6.4 M … $6.4 M
6. Morning Glory – $5.2 M … $19.8 M
7. Skyline – $3.5 M … $17.2 M
8. RED – $2.4 M … $83.5 M
9. For Colored Girls – $2.3 M … $34.4 M
10. Fair Game – $1.4 M … $3.7 M

The box office top 12 grossed $187 million, making this weekend just by a nose (ahead of when “Alice and Wonderland” came out) the biggest movie weekend of 2010.

Among the top finishers, most films took a hit that weren’t “Harry Potter.” New film “The Next Three Days” boasting Russell Crowe and filmmaker Paul Haggis came up ridiculously short with just $6.4 million. “Megamind,” “Unstoppable” and “Due Date” all feel between 42 and 45 percent from last weekend, which is further indication that “Potter” sucked in most theatergoers.

Based-on-true-events thriller “Fair Game” starring Naomi Watts and Sean Penn broke the top 10 this week with a little over a million dollars in just 386 theaters.

Movie theaters will brace for four unique films hitting theaters on Wednesday: the musical “Burlesque” with Cher and Christina Aguilera, the Disney fairytale film “Tangled,” the revenge flick “Faster” starring The Rock and rom-com “Love and Other Drugs” with Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal. It will be interesting to see if any can find success in “Harry Potter’s” shadow.