July 16, 2007–The opening weekend of “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” dominated international moviegoing with a gross of $190.3 million from more than 12,000 prints. The launch represented the third biggest international opening ever, trailing only “Spider-Man 3” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.”
Warner's “Harry Potter” 5 picture was first in all 61 markets in which it opened, setting marks as the biggest four-day launch in the U.K. at $32.5 million, the second-biggest openings ever in Mexico at $10 million and Brazil at $7.1 million and the fifth-largest in Australia at $14.4 million, South Korea at $12.1 million and Italy at $11 million. Its German launch of $18.7 million matched “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End” as the top Teutonic opening of the year.
The new “Harry Potter” was the best foreign debut of the five “Potter” films. The quintet's now grossed a collective $2.6 billion overseas and $3.9 billion worldwide, with two more films–“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” and “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”–in the works for 2008 and 2010.
Though Warner will not open “Phoenix” in Japan and Russia until next weekend, it achieved the same overwhelming success as “Spider-Man 3” ($231 million in a six-day foreign debut) and “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End” ($216 million in its first five-day weekend and $245 million in its first six days).
“Phoenix” may become the 16th film to gross half a billion dollars overseas, like “Pirates 3,” “Spider-Man 3” and all four previous Potter movies.
With “Transformers,” “Shrek the Third” and “Live Free or Die Hard” still running strong, Hollywood's year-to-date grosses is 13% ahead of 2006 overseas.
Key international milestone for “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” will be matching the performance of “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,” the only other picture in the series released during the summer and the lowest grosser at $540 million.
