Friday Report: Seventh 'Harry Potter' Logs Franchise-Best First Day
On Friday, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 whipped up the fifth biggest-grossing single day ever and a new franchise high. The overall Friday box office, though, paled in comparison to the same day last year (down around 25 percent), which featured the one-two punch of The Twilight Saga: New Moon and The Blind Side.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 drew an estimated $61.15 million on approximately 9,400 screens at 4,125 locations, exceeding Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince's $58.2 million first day and blowing past the franchise's last pre-Thanksgiving opening, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which earned $40.1 million. New Moon still holds the single day record with $72.7 million, followed by The Twilight Saga: Eclipse ($68.5 million), The Dark Knight ($67.2 million) and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen ($62 million).

Included in Deathly Hallows Part 1's Friday was the $24 million it made in its midnight opening, which was the third biggest-grossing ever behind Eclipse and New Moon. Deathly Hallows Part 1 also played at a record number of IMAX venues (239), and they contributed an estimated $5.1 million, setting a new daily gross benchmark for the format.

Also opening was The Next Three Days, but the thriller was a bust, making an estimated $2.2 million on close to 2,700 screens at 2,564 locations. That was on the low end of the genre, doing less than half the business of star Russell Crowe's last thriller, State of Play.

Unstoppable slowed 49 percent Friday-to-Friday to an estimated $4.1 million, but held better than The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 at the same point, though its $32.9 million eight-day haul trailed Pelham.

Megamind took a hit opposite Harry Potter, but the damage wasn't as extreme as when Chicken Little was struck by Goblet of Fire. Megamind slipped 52 percent to an estimated $3.7 million, lifting its total to $97 million in 15 days.

Due Date fell 47 percent to an estimated $2.9 million for a $66.4 million tally in 15 days. Morning Glory didn't perk up in its second Friday, tumbling 48 percent to an estimated $1.6 million for a $16.2 million sum in ten days. Skyline had the biggest crash among nationwide releases, depleting by 78 percent to an estimated $1.07 million. The drop was worse than The Fourth Kind's last November, and the total climbed to a listless $15.3 million in eight days.