娱乐英语新闻:"Harry Potter 7" dominates spellbound box office in N America

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1," the seventh installment on Hogwarts, has prevailed in the U.S. and Canadian box office over the weekend, garnering a projected 125.1 million dollars in ticket receipts and assured of having the biggest opening weekend for the franchise.

"Death Hallows" has surpassed 2005's "Goblet of Fire" Friday showing of 102.7 million dollars, the franchise's previous high, and is likely to also surpass Goblet's opening weekend take of 102. 3 million dollars, the North America box office authority said on Sunday.

The installment had a whopping 30,332 dollars per theater in projected domestic sales. Twenty-four million dollars came from midnight/early Friday showings after the clocks struck 12 Thursday night.

The film, which is based on the first part of J.K. Rowling's seventh and final "Harry Potter" novel, ranked No. 5 on Friday- only debut movie gross record in Hollywood history. The other four top earners are: "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" (72.7 million dollars), "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" (68.5 million dollars), " The Dark Knight" (67.2 million dollars ) and "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" (62 million dollars).

Elsewhere in the overseas markets, the flick took in 28 million dollars in Britain, 15 million dollars in Australia and 12 million dollars in Russia, distributor Warner Bros. said.

The fantasy-adventure film consisted of two feature-length releases. The finale, "Deathly Hallows: Part 2," is due out in July.

"Megamind," an animated supervillain comedy film from the Dreamworks, has slipped from the No. 1 placing it has held down for two weeks in a row, with an estimated 16.1 million dollars this weekend, for a three-week total of 109.5 million dollars, surpassing the 100 million dollars benchmark.

"Unstoppable," a 20th Century Fox release about a run-away train which stars Academy Award-winning Denzel Washington and " Star Trek" up-and-coming actor Chris Pine, was in third place this weekend, harvesting 13.1 million dollars for a two-week total of 42 million.

Rounding out the top ten most popular films in North America box office are:

-- No. 4: "Due Date," Warner Bros., 9.2 million dollars this weekend, 72.7 million dollars over three weeks;

-- No. 5: "The Next Three Days," Lionsgate, debuting with 6.8 million dollars this weekend;

-- No. 6: "Morning Glory," Paramount, 5.2 million dollars this weekend, 19.9 million dollars over two weeks;

-- No. 7: "Skyline," Universal, 3.4 million dollars this weekend, 17.6 million dollars over two weeks;

-- No. 8: "Red," Summit, 2.5 million dollars this weekend, 83.6 million dollars over six weeks;

-- No. 9: "For Colored Girls," Lionsgate, 2.4 million dollars this weekend, 34.5 million dollars over three weeks;

-- No. 10: "Fair Game," Summit, 1.8 million dollars this weekend, 3.7 million dollars over seven weeks.