Harry Potter 7.2 takes down Dark Knights with $168.6M weekend gross

Box Office Report list click here

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 soared into the record books with the highest-grossing opening weekend ever. The series finale drew an estimated $168.55 million on around 11,000 screens at 4,375 locations, dethroning The Dark Knight's $158.4 million.

Deathly Hallows Part 2's first weekend flew past the previous franchise high of $125 million, posted by Deathly Hallows Part 1 last November, and it topped the franchise in terms of estimated attendance as well. While its opening gross also out-distanced The Dark Knight, Spider-Man 3 ($151.1 million), The Twilight Saga: New Moon ($142.8 million), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest ($135.6 million) and the first Spider-Man ($114.8 million), Deathly Hallows Part 2's estimated opening attendance was less than those titles, ranking sixth overall.

After conjuring the opening day record of $92.1 million on Friday (buoyed by a record-shattering $43.5 million midnight launch), Deathly Hallows Part 2 saw the steepest Friday-to-Saturday drop on record for a non-holiday first weekend, falling 53 percent to an estimated $42.85 million. Its Saturday slotted ninth among the top-grossing Saturdays of all time. Distributor Warner Bros. projected a 22 percent Saturday-to-Sunday decline to $33.6 million, which would rank eighth on the all-time Sunday grosses chart.