Warner Bros. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 posts record-breaking North American midnight grosses with an incredible $43.5 million from shows (in 3,800 locs) starting at 12:01am on Friday and running throughout the pre-dawn hours. Sell outs were the norm as excited fans lined up all over the country to see this final installment of the most successful movie franchise ever.

This beats the previous midnight record set by 2010’s The Twilight Saga: Eclipse which earned around $30 million for its midnight screenings on Wednesday June 30, 2010 and easily surpasses the midnight gross for Deathly Hallows, Part 1 back on Friday November 19, 2010.

This sets the stage for a massive and potentially record-breaking single-day gross for the film on Friday (which will include these midnight revenues) that could hit $80 million and take the all-time single-day crown worn by The Twilight Saga: New Moon which earned $72.7 million in its debut on Friday, November 20, 2009 after posting the then second best midnight gross of $26,270,000.

Pre-release projections for the total weekend take for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 have varied from $125 million to well over $150 million and beyond and given this amazing midnight performance the film has a real shot at posting the biggest opening weekend of all-time if it beats The Dark Knight’s $158.4 million debut back in mid-July 2008. We will not know the final outcome until Sunday morning’s box-office weekend estimates, but there is no question that this is already one of the most monumental movie events of this or any year.

Click on this link to see our story – Harry Potter 7 Breaks All-Time Opening Weekend Record!

Click on this link to see our story on the Record-Breaking Single-Day Gross for Potter 7, Part 2