Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part II is officially the top-grosser of 2011!

As of yesterday, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part II is the highest-grossing film of 2011, both worldwide and domestically.  On the domestic front, it surpass Transformers: Dark of the Moon and now sits at $344 million in just over a month of national release.  On the worldwide front, the Harry Potter series finale is now the highest-grossing film of all-time not directed by James Cameron.  Second only to Titanic ($1.8 billion) and Avatar ($2.7 billion), the eighth and final Harry Potter adventure now sits at $1.13 billion, surpassing the $1.119 billion gross of The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.  Yes, we can discuss the 3D bump and the inflation argument, but Frodo's big record (the biggest-grossing film not helmed by James Cameron) has held steady for nearly eight years as several films joined the $1 billion club but couldn't get that extra $120 million needed to get over the hump.  While it sits $7 million below Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides in terms of pure overseas grosses, that will be surpassed in the next day or two, leaving the film as the third-biggest overseas grosser as well.  All in just over a month of worldwide release.

So Harry Potter 7.2 stands as the biggest film not helmed by James Cameron, the highest-grossing sequel, Warner Bros's highest-grossing film, etc etc. As far as inflation goes, it needs only $15 million in domestic sales to surpass the $360 million 'adjusted-for-inflation' gross of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which is number two on the inflation-adjusted list (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone's $445 million is pretty much out of reach).  In terms of estimated tickets sold, Harry Potter 7.2 stands with 42.79 million tickets, good for fourth place in the series.  But it's just under 2.4 million tickets away from the 45.175 million tickets sold by the fourth picture, while the tickets-sold champ (again the first film in the series) is likely out of reach with 55.9 million tickets sold.  Point being, 3D bump or not, the film is likely going to become the second-most viewed (in theaters) entry of the series.  And the entire series is currently at $7.5 billion worldwide, with a final total of over $8 billion certainly in the cards.  Just think, if Warner Bros. had split book four into two movies, we'd be looking at the first $10 billion franchise.

Scott Mendelson