2 "The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King" and No. 3 "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest"), with a worldwide gross of $968.7 million.
9 is "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" (2005), which took in $892.2 million. "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" (2002), at No.
"Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" (2004), at No. Those figures don't include video rental fees, TV rights or other revenue. Early Tuesday evening at the Roxy Stadium in Camarillo, where a "Welcome to Hogwarts" sign and "floating" candles greeted moviegoers in the lobby, general manager Paul Curro said the theater had already sold 650 of about 1,000 tickets available for six midnight screenings.
The "crazy Harry Potter fans" would start lining up around 10 p.m., he said.
At the Century Theatres in Ventura, Oxnard residents Edgar and Greg Villasenor and Cynthia and Allison Regalado arrived much earlier, at 10:30 a.m., so they would be the first group camped out in line — yes, they had a tent.
They almost made a full Hogwarts house: Each wore a homemade scarf (which Cynthia, 21, and Allison, 18, finished knitting while they were waiting) in the colors of the different Hogwarts houses. They planned to watch DVDs of the third and fourth Harry Potter movies on Edgar's laptop to kill the final five hours before midnight. Special wands for characters Behind them were Stephen Montijo, 16, and Torry Yaeger, 15, who had been waiting since noon.
The Camarillo teens were ready to wield special wands they'd brought from home (a Severus Snape jet-black wand for Stephen and an Albus Dumbledore one for Yaeger). "We'll wave them when our favorite characters go up on screen during the movie," Torry said. The interest in the films isn't surprising, considering the built-in audience of rabid readers, many of whom, as in years past, will make a midnight stampede to stores for Potter parties and other wizard revelry when "Deathly Hallows" is released.
According to Scholastic, the series' U.S. publisher, 121.
5 million copies of the first six Harry Potter books have been sold in the U.S. and 325 million worldwide.
The first print run of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" will be a record-breaking 12 million copies In the U.S. Online retailer Amazon.
com reports that nearly 1.6 million copies of "Deathly Hallows" have been ordered from the site, surpassing the 1.5 million pre-orders for book six, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
" Potter fever is widespread in part because Rowling's magical literary world appeals to all ages, from young children to teens to adults. Youth services librarian a fan Calabasas youth services librarian Karilyn Steward, for example, who organized the Saturday teen event, is an adult Potter devotee. Her office is a shrine to the books and films, and in particular, to her favorite character, Harry's redheaded best friend, Ron Weasley.
On Saturday, Steward, a hand-carved wooden wand tucked into her pocket, wore a T-shirt with a photo of Ron (played by actor Rubert Grint in the films) printed on it. She has an "I Love Ron" bumper sticker pinned to her office wall along with numerous drawings, cards and other depictions of Potter characters contributed by library patrons. Steward attended the red-carpet portion of the film's U.
S. premiere in Hollywood on Sunday, arriving at 1:30 a.m.
to stake out a spot in hopes of catching a glimpse of Grint along with Daniel Radcliffe, who plays Harry in the films, and Emma Watson, who plays Hermione. Steward said she managed to take a few "faraway" photographs of the actors. She's never waited in line at midnight to see the Harry Potter films but does see the first matinee showing of each one.
This year, however, Steward will have to wait until the end of the week, she said, because Warner Bros. switched the film's original release date from Friday to today. "I have to work; I've got the library's summer reading program," she said.
No cookies will be served. 2 "The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King" and No.
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