Students arrive at Hogwarts Castle in HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE.
© 2001 Warner Bros.
HARRY POTTER Setting Record
By: Frank KurtzDate: Wednesday, November 14, 2001
Source: Variety
When HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE debuts, odds are good that you'll be able to see it on opening day with word that the film will be shown on an unprecedented number of screens.
According to Variety, as it stands, the film will be opening on 7,000-plus screens, setting a new all-time record. Previous record holders have been MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 2 with 3,653 and SHREK, which opened with 3,587 screens only to expand to 3,715 later on.
Given that all those theaters might actually be full for the weekend, HARRY POTTER also stands to set a non-holiday weekend box office record, previously set by Tim Burton's PLANET OF THE APES remake, which took in $68.5M on its opening weekend. The holiday weekend record still stands with THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK, which grossed $90.1M on its 4 day opening weekend.
While talking to the trade, David Davis, senior veep and box office analyst for Houlihan, Lokey, Howard & Zukin, gave his estimate on how well the film will do, saying, "The number's going to be slightly above $80 million. That's based on simple math about butts in seats. There will be a record number of screens and a virtually sold-out weekend."
When asked about speculation on the coming film's box office potential, Warner Bros. reps gave answers like, "Nothing's certain until a picture opens."
