'Harry Potter' Becomes Top-Grossing Franchise
Worldwide Update: On Wednesday, Deathly Hallows Part 2 racked up another $35.2 million, bringing its foreign haul to $425.3 million. Add in domestic, and it's made $640.2 million worldwide, surpassing Fast Five to become the third highest-grossing movie of 2011 so far. That also means the final Potter struck the $600 million worldwide mark in record time. It took just eight days, compared to Transformers: Dark of the Moon's 11-day run and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides's 12-day run. As a whole, the Harry Potter franchise heralded another milestone: it hit the $7 billion mark. It's been the top-grossing franchise globally since the sixth movie, Half-Blood Prince.

Domestic Report: On Wednesday, Harry Potter edged out Star Wars to become the top-grossing franchise of all time. The eight Potter movies have accumulated $2.223 billion, compared to $2.218 billion for Star Wars. They're also the only two franchises to have crossed the $2 billion mark, though James Bond and Batman would join the party when adjusted for ticket price inflation.

Star Wars still trumps Potter in terms of estimated attendance, more than doubling the wizard wunderkind. It even maintains most of that margin when its re-releases are factored out.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 pulled in $12.27 million on Wednesday, down 20 percent from Tuesday. That ranked as the 13th highest-grossing non-opening Wednesday ever. The first Transformers holds the non-opening Wednesday record with $29.1 million, while The Dark Knight made $18.4 million with a 12 percent Tuesday-to-Wednesday drop at the same point. Deathly Hallows Part 1, Goblet of Fire and Sorcerer's Stone all had higher grossing Wednesdays than Deathly Hallows Part 2, but each of those were buoyed by the Thanksgiving holiday.

With a $214.88 million tally, Deathly Hallows Part 2 slotted third among the top-grossing six-day openings, behind The Dark Knight's $222.15 million and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen's $214.93 million, but it's still the fastest-grossing Potter, topping Half-Blood Prince's $167.9 million six-day haul and ahead of any Twilight movie. Normalized for ticket price inflation, Deathly Hallows Part 2 would rank ninth on that chart.

Meanwhile, Harry Potter distributor Warner Bros. crossed the $1 billion mark for the year, marking the studio's 11th billion dollar year in a row. Currently, Warner ranks second to Paramount, but the studio was the top grosser of the past three years.

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Around-the-World Roundup: 'Potter' Obliterates Foreign Record

Related Charts:

• 'Harry Potter' Franchise

• 'Star Wars' Franchise

• All-Time 6-day Openings

• All-Time Non-Opening Wednesdays

• 2011 Domestic Grosses

• 2011 Worldwide Grosses

• Showdown: 'Harry Potter' Vs. 'Dark Knight'

• Showdown: 'Harry Potter' Vs. 'Twilight'