Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 earned a staggering $475.6 million worldwide in its opening weekend, making it the best showing of all time.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the previous opening weekend record holder was 2009's Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which brought in $394 million worldwide in its opening weekend.
Deathly Hallows 2's debut internationally earned $307 million, while it earned $168.8 million in the United States and Canada.
The film with the second-highest opening weekend in North America was 2008's The Dark Knight, which earned $158 million in its opening weekend.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 is the final Harry Potter movie ever since its first film 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone' that premiered in 2001.
Daniel Radcliffe, who played Potter in all the installments, admitted to CNN that he "wept like a child" when the filming of the final film was wrapped.
"I've had such an amazing time on Potter. It's been such an extraordinary experience to work with, essentially, the same group of people for 10 years," the 21-year-old actor said. "You develop such close bonds with so many people."
Tell Us: Did you see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 this weekend?
Harry Potter star Emma Watson thinks that young girls should be taught to be tough and strong rather than being pretty and polite like a princess from a fairytale.
The 21-year-old actress, who has played Hermione Granger for over 10 years in the wizard franchise, credited her character with teaching her to be strong, reported Sun online.
"I feel like young girls are told they have to be this kind of princess and be all this sweet stuff. It's all crap. I identify with more of being a warrior princess, so if I had to be a princess, I'd have to be tough. That would have a lot of people terrified," Watson said.
Talking about Hermione, she said that the character grew with her and she will miss playing her the most.
"I try to intellectualise a lot, which she does well. She's very determined. I am as well. I feel so much of me went into her and so much of her went into me that I can't really differentiate too much anymore," Watson said.
The 21-year-old actor has starred as the boy wizard in all eight movies in the series - most recently Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, the second instalment of the adaptation of J.K. Rowling's seventh book - but hopes the author doesn't write anymore sequels as he thinks the franchise has finished at the right time.
He said, "I'm the only person in the world that doesn't want there to be an eighth Harry Potter book. Believe me, I've given 10 years - I can! I think it's been an amazing 10 years and I would be quite happy for it to finish at this point because the stories were rounded off in such a succinct and perfect way."
Despite his reluctance to return to the franchise, Daniel will always be "proud" of his work on the movie series.
He also said, "Every opportunity I will get for the rest of my life, I would not have got if it wasn't for Harry Potter. It would be the height of ingratitude if I was ever anything but proud to be associated with these films."
The 21-year-old star was cast in the Harry Potter movies when he was just 11 years old and he admits one of the main reasons why he and co-stars Rupert Grint and Emma Watson were cast was because of their appearances, rather than their talent.
He said: I think there's a perception that we got the parts because we looked right. I think that's probably quite fair.
"Also, acting is something that I don't necessarily think comes naturally to me. Certainly not as natural as it does to, say, Haley Joel Osment or Dakota Fanning, who were just giving full-blown adult performances at the age of 10."
Despite his insecurity about his talent, the 'Harry Potter' cast and crew are quick to praise Daniel's work ethic, insisting he is more committed to the project than many other stars.
Producer David Heyman told Britain's GQ magazine: "On the first day of shooting the very first film Dan had these coloured contact lenses in. And they were causing him so much pain but he never complained.
"There are people who have nowhere near his talent or celebrity who don't show that commitment. I think he missed maybe two or three days through sickness in the entire eight films."
Film farewells don't get much bigger than Harry Potter, and thousands of fans prepared on Thursday to say goodbye to their beloved boy wizard at the world premiere of the final movie in the record-breaking series.
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2" is the eighth installment -- and first in 3D -- of a franchise that has generated more public excitement and media hype than any other in living memory.
For Hollywood studio Warner Bros it has been a magic pot of gold, with the seven films released so far grossing $6.4 billion in ticket sales and billions more from DVDs and merchandise.
For a generation of Potter fans, the movies have extended the wizarding world created by British author J.K. Rowling in her seven-book saga which began in 1997 and concluded in 2007.
More than 400 million copies have been sold around the globe, making Rowling the first author billionaire and providing a huge support base upon which the films built.
"We've grown up in the Harry Potter generation -- I read the first book when I was five so now it's weird that it's coming to an end ... like the end of childhood," said Rhys, an 18-year-old who braved the rain in London's Trafalgar Square.
Die-hard fans, some in full regalia from the fictional Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, have camped out since Monday to catch a glimpse of the stars as they walk the red carpet at the official world premiere.
The young actors, cast in their roles aged between nine and 11, said they too were struggling to get to grips with the post-Potter world, despite being A-list stars with huge personal fortunes.
"After we finished (filming) a year ago now I have felt a little bit lost without it, really, and not really knowing what to do with myself," said 22-year-old Rupert Grint, who plays Potter's main sidekick Ron Weasley.
"It's been such a constant part of my life and to suddenly have that come down to this one film, it is quite sad and I'm really genuinely going to miss it and miss everyone."
Rupert Grint has confessed that his onscreen kiss with Emma Watson in the final instalment of the 'Harry Potter' film series would be to be 'a bit of an anticlimax' for viewers.
Grint, 22, and Watson, 21 will be sharing a highly anticipated kiss in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, to be released in cinemas this month.
But, according to the Observer, the actor said the moment itself is likely to prove quite under whelming to fans who have been waiting ten years to see the two get together.
"That's going to be a bit of an anticlimax," the Telegraph quoted Grint as saying, while describing the kiss as a "small, small moment".
He was asked about the long build-up to the moment, which both actors, who are close friends, knew would eventually arrive.
"It can be hard to keep up the energy," he stated.
Actor Daniel Radcliffe revealed he became dependent on alcohol when he was 18 while struggling to cope with the pressures of fame.
The 22-year-old actor, who rose to fame in 2001 when he first played the titular role in "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", says he started drinking heavily while working on the sixth movie in the franchise, " Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince". "I became so reliant on alcohol to enjoy stuff.
There were a few years there when I was just so enamoured with the idea of living some sort of famous person's lifestyle that really isn't suited to me," femalefirst quoted the actor as saying. Radcliffe gave up alcohol in August last year.
If only they could wave a magic wand, studio executives at Warner Bros. would make their "Harry Potter" film franchise last forever. But movie magic takes more than a whisk of a stick to conjure up.
When "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2" opens on July 15, it marks the beginning of the end for the highest grossing movie series of all time [$6 billion worldwide box office] and one that has given Hollywood studio Warner Bros. a stable revenue source since 2001.
The end of "Harry Potter" has led financial analysts to wonder what Warner Bros., a unit of Time Warner Inc., has planned to fill the gap when the series about the young magician, his friends, and their battle against evil comes to an end.
With this eighth movie, Warner Bros. has tapped all the books in the "Harry Potter" series from author J.K. Rowling, which are the backbone of the films.
For summer 2012, Warner Bros can bank on "The Dark Knight Rises," the third Batman movie directed by Christopher Nolan and the follow-up to his 2008 "The Dark Knight," which topped $1 billion in world ticket sales.
Also next year, the studio looks to release its highly anticipated "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," which is a prequel to its successful "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy.
Meanwhile, Warner Bros is busy on the next Superman movie, "Man of Steel," set for release in 2012. The studio hopes to reverse the mediocre performance of 2006's "Superman Returns."
Would all these reboots of existing franchises and sequels of already existing properties help Warner Bros. studios to fill the gap as planned? We are sure to find out soon.
Emma Watson has admitted being 'a bit scared' during the filming of the final installment of the Harry Potter Franchise, The Deathly Hallows II.
"It was a bit scary at times when all the fake bombs were going off as We didn't really have much training or much warning sometimes," she explained.
"Although they can prepare you and put stunt doubles in there, there's a certain amount that you have to do yourself. You can't get away from doing nothing."
So what was the scariest stint that she had to do herself? "I threw myself off the top of a vault onto the back of a dragon. But it meant that I was doing a sort of... I mean I had crash mats. I don't want to exaggerate, 20 or 30 foot drop. I just had to dive off into my stomach."
Emma explained, "Your body's saying, 'No,no,no!'. And you have to just do it. And the pyrotechnics. There were lots of bangs and explosions."
J.K. Rowling finally unveiled her highly-anticipated Pottermore website Thursday.
Beginning this October, the seven Harry Potter novels will be released on eBooks, and an interactive community will launch online. She hopes it will encourage more people to begin reading.
But fans were a little confused about the site on Twitter, where Rowling's initials, #JKR, quickly became a trending topic Thursday morning.
It seems that Pottermore is both a social network and the encyclopedia, an Interactive Online Experience.
While there were a few jokes about Pottermore, some really made a lot of sense given that Rowling has sold more than 400 million copies worldwide and the Harry Potter movies are the most profitable franchise of all time. Overall, the fans were excited and the jokes started as follows:
"Obama declared war against the UK because Pottermore didn't accept his email address."
"Frodo destroyed the ring because Pottermore accepted his email."
"Pottermore is actually the Matrix: users will be reborn in a world of wizardry while their body-heat powers the servers."
Celebs Factory finds Pottermore to be an amazing concept for it paves way for something to be looked forward after the release of the final installment - Deathly Hallows Part II on July 15th.
Pottermore is open to all in October. Leave your email address now and you'd be notified when the registration is open.
He shot to fame at a very early age with the Harry Potter series and now that it has come to an end, actor Rupert Grint is set to star in a new film about an English football team during World War II.
The 23-year-old is in talks to take on one of the lead roles in Wartime Wanderers based on Tim Purcell and Mike Gething's 1996 book, reported Contactmusic.
The movie follows the story of Bolton Wanderers Football Club's players who quit the game to serve their country in 1939.
The footballers were led by captain Harry Goslin who took the microphone before a match with Sunderland at Bolton's Burnden Park to urge the 23,000-strong crowd to take up arms, before revealing he was to sign up himself.
Goslin was followed to the local drill hall by every member of the squad, who went on to face some of the heaviest action of the war together in France, North Africa and Italy.
"It really is a gripping yarn. It was a time when footballers were part of the community and not prima donnas.
They went to dance halls with fans," Purcell said.
"They were footballers and Englishmen who wanted to fight for their country. Harry spoke to the supporters on Easter Saturday and said he was going to join up himself. He didn't know it but all his team-mates followed him and some staff went too," he added.
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” the seventh and final adventure in the Harry Potter film series, is a much-anticipated motion picture event to be told in two full-length parts.
Part 1 begins as Harry, Ron and Hermione set out on their perilous mission to track down and destroy the secret to Voldemort’s immortality and destruction-the Horcruxes. On their own, without the guidance of their professors or the protection of Professor Dumbledore, the three friends must now rely on one another more than ever. But there are Dark Forces in their midst that threaten to tear them apart.
Meanwhile, the wizarding world has become a dangerous place for all enemies of the Dark Lord. The long-feared war has begun and Voldemort’s Death Eaters seize control of the Ministry of Magic and even Hogwarts, terrorizing and arresting anyone who might oppose them. But the one prize they still seek is the one most valuable to Voldemort: Harry Potter. The Chosen One has become the hunted one as the Death Eaters search for Harry with orders to bring him to Voldemort…alive.
Harry’s only hope is to find the Horcruxes before Voldemort finds him. But as he searches for clues, he uncovers an old and almost forgotten tale-the legend of the Deathly Hallows. And if the legend turns out to be true, it could give Voldemort the ultimate power he seeks.
Little does Harry know that his future has already been decided by his past when, on that fateful day, he became “the Boy Who Lived.” No longer just a boy, Harry Potter is drawing ever closer to the task for which he has been preparing since the day he first stepped into Hogwarts: the ultimate battle with Voldemort.
Take a sneak peek at the Killing Curse clip, will Harry Potter survive it?
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