Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Harry Potter is looking to beat $50 Million for Opening Day and possibly make more than $15 Million for Midnight showings if Online ticket sales are any indication.

From Fandango,

"(Los Angeles, July 13) -- Harry Potter is successfully casting his spell on moviegoers across the country, selling out more than 1,000 showtimes on Fandango, from San Francisco to New York, from Anchorage, Alaska to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. As Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince opens tomorrow night at midnight, theater owners are scrambling to add additional showtimes throughout the witching hours on Wednesday morning. "

"The sixth Harry Potter movie currently represents:
•One of the fastest-selling titles in Fandango's nine year history, on track to replace Twilight as the company's third top-selling advance ticketer (following Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith and The Dark Knight, occupying the #1 and #2 spots, respectively).
•A higher number of advance tickets sold for Harry Potter 6 than sold for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Iron Man or Sex and the City at the same point in the sales cycle on Fandango.
•96% of daily ticket sales on Fandango."

From Box Office Magazine,

"Monday Afternoon Update (1:16 p.m. PT): MovieTickets.com is currently reporting 1,300 sold-out showings of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince worldwide, including 950 midnight sellouts in the U.S. alone. Half-Blood Prince is currently outpacing seven of the top 10 all-time ticket sellers. The Warner Bros. release still trails Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, The Dark Knight and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire."

They aren't counting the same shows. Movietickets and Fandango have exclusive deals with different theater chains. Opening Day is definitely going to be big despite the fact that the "real" IMAX screens will not be showing Harry Potter. This is because IMAX made an exclusive deal for Transformers to be shown for a number of weeks and some of those overlap with the release of Harry Potter.

The only question is how much does Harry Potter gross this weekend? Harry Potter is very front loaded and it having a much bigger Opening Day does not mean that the weekend will increase likewise. Right now I have no contracts for Harry Potter, I think Harry Potter will definitely have a bigger weekend then the previous $77 Million made by Order of the Phoenix but I think the prices being asked are too high. I don't really feel comfortable going short or long right now.

[Update: 3:13PM]

From Box Office Magazine,

Tuesday Morning Update (11:43 a.m. PT): Fandango.com is now reporting more than 2,500 sold-out shows, and the ticketing site is currently selling an average of eight HP6 tickets per second. The wizard flick is currently outpacing Twilight in Fandango’s advance ticket sales, and by day’s end, it may even end up outpacing The Dark Knight, according to an official statement.

Tuesday Morning Update (11:36 a.m. PT): MovieTickets.com is now reporting 2,000 sold-out performances for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, including almost 1,500 midnight sellouts in the U.S. alone. The film is outselling all of the Harry Potter films at the same point in the sales cycle, with the exception of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.