NEWS: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince brings in a massive $58.2 million (including midnight showings) on Wednesday, according to an official studio estimate. It has already earned $104 million internationally. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen still holds the record for biggest Wednesday gross with a monstrous $62 million.

'Prince' made a spectacular $22.2 million from midnight and early morning showings. That tops the $18 million midnight take of The Dark Knight and it is now believed that 'Prince' could wind up with $170M+ by the end of the weekend.

HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE: opened everywhere yesterday. And I mean everywhere. 'Half-Blood Prince’ is playing in 4,275 U.S. and Canadian locations on over 8000 screens. It is also opening in 85 foreign territories, including the UK and Japan, two of Potter's most lucrative locations. Around the same time last year, Warner Bros. released The Dark Knight which opened to the tune of $158.4M and ended up earning over $1B worldwide. 'Half-Blood' shares many similarities to The Dark Knight. It has great reviews, a coveted summer release date, and millions of eager fans across the world waiting to feast their eyes on this newest installment.

It is now the third highest rated film in the series with an commendable 87% score on RottenTomatoes (it was once at 98%).To see just how financially successful the five previous films have been for the studio, take a look at their worldwide box office totals:

Order of the Phoenix managed to make $44,232,338 on its Wednesday opening, and finished the weekend with $139,715,157. The film was able to reach $150M in a mere six days. With these new numbers 'Prince' will most likely beat the five-day haul of OotP but will fall behind Transformers 2.

All of the Potter films have great staying power as well as a massive international fan base. It is escapism at its finest- a film that truly transports you into a world that you have come to know and love. It is always so wonderful seeing J.K. Rowling's books come to life. We sincerely thank you.

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