'Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince' Debut Earns A 'Spellbinding' $400 Million Worldwide

Variety reports that Warner Bros.' "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" made nearly $400 million in its worldwide debut, earning the title of the biggest overseas opening of all time at $237 million and grossing $159.7 million domestically.

The film's current tally of $396.7 million is the strongest start ever for a "Harry Potter" film. The amount also makes it one of the top openings of all time.

"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" also scored the biggest midnight gross of all-time in earning $22.2 million as it opened in 3,003 runs at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, July 15th. To read more on the opening in Variety, click here.

Warner Brothers is splitting "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", the seventh and final book in the series about the young wizard, into two movies because of its length. Part I is to set debut on November 19th, 2010, while the final movie comes out eight months later in July 2010. The five movies based on the books by J.K. Rowling have already been made into huge cinema hits with stars Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint. "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" is the sixth film in the series.

Daniel Radcliffe is best known for playing the title role in all five of the "Harry Potter" films to date, and will star again in the remaining titles. He recently made his Broadway debut, to much acclaim, in EQUUS. EQUUS also starred Richard Griffiths, with whom Daniel appeared in the highly successful production of the play in London's West End and in the Harry Potter films as well.

Radcliffe won BroadwayWorld.com 's 2009 Theatre Fans' Choice Award for Best Leading Actor in a Play for his role in EQUUS.

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Studios.

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