Harry Potter Box Office Smashes The Dark Knight‘s Opening Box Office Record

Well, we all knew a lot of people were going to go see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, but even so, the results after the first weekend are still surprising.

Especially when you consider facts like: “two out of every three tickets sold this past weekend had the name “Harry Potter” printed on them.”

The final weekend numbers for the finale of the Harry Potter series came in at $475 million, $168 million in North America, which beats the US opening weekend box office of The Dark Knight (the previous record holder) by about $10 million. The audience was also significantly older:

Just 45 percent of the audience was under 25 years old, compared with 56 percent for the penultimate Potter.

Vulture attributes this to the number of kids who’ve grown up with the series returning to sample the finale, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t point out that the intense hype surrounding the release of the film (and the seriousness of the film as a final installment; death, violence, etc.) may have deterred many parents for whom a new Harry Potter release is a guaranteed small child occupier. I think it’s fair to say that those parents are waiting for theaters to get less crowded.

So, Potter fans, this mad fan of Christopher Nolan‘s Batman will say this: Congratulations! Really! Now can those of us who didn’t go see Deathly Hallows please, please see the Dark Knight Rises teaser. Like seriously. This is just insult to injury.

Please.

Edit: Thank you.

(via Newsarama.)