Harry Potter Works His Magic at the Box Office

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 came in at the top of the box office last weekend, earning $125.1 million in its first weekend, a record for the franchise. Other, non-Harry Potter movies predictably did not do as well; last week’s number one, Megamind, was the runner up, with a weekend gross of $16.1 million and a total gross of $109.4 million. So yes, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 made more money in one weekend than Megamind did in 17 days. Somewhere, Dreamworks executives are trying to figure out how Death Eaters used dark magic to boost their box office. Good luck, guys—you have until Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2‘s release on July 15th, 2011 to figure it out.

Unstoppable came in at number three (weekend gross $13.1 million, total gross $41.9 million), Due Date was number four (weekend gross $9.1 million, total gross $72.6 million) and The Next Three Days debuted at spot number five (weekend gross $6.7 million).

Other new releases were Today’s Special ($91,000), Made in Dagenham ($41,112), White Material ($34,100) and William S. Burroughs: A Man Within ($7,054).

Coming out this Wednesday, just in time for Thanksgiving, are Tangled, Faster, Love and Other Drugs and Burlesque, with The Legend of Pale Male coming out in limited release. On the Friday after Thanksgiving, shoppers can take a break from hunting down sweet deals to catch Contracorriente and The King’s Speech, both out in limited release.

A friendly reminder from the MovieMaker staff to everyone going to the movies on Black Friday: Please leave your shopping bloodlust outside the theater. We don’t want anyone to start fighting over who gets the armrest.