Harry Potter Works His Magic at the Box Office

No surprises here: Over the weekend it was Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince that blew away the competition, earning nearly $79.5 million, bringing its five-day total up to $159.6 million. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs remained strong in second place, earning $17.7 over the weekend and beating out last week’s number one box office draw, Brüno, which fell to fourth place.

(500) Days of Summer averaged a respectable $31,022 in 27 theaters. Public Enemies made $7.9 million over the weekend; despite featuring stars Johnny Depp and Christian Bale, Public Enemies has only made it to the number three spot since its release on July 1st. This week it made it to number seven. Teen comedy I Love You, Beth Cooper earned just $2.6 million over the weekend—not hard to understand given the movie got almost no publicity nor any good reviews. Next weekend it will be up to guinea pig comedy G-Force, rom-com The Ugly Truth and thriller Orphan to topple the behemoth that is Harry Potter. My bets are on the wizard.