Online Ticket Sales For Potter Finale May Set Record

As of Tuesday, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 had already collected $25 million in advance ticket sales in the U.S. and Canada, which will probably rise to around $31 million by the time midnight screenings of the film begin Thursday night/Friday morning, Warner Bros. said on Tuesday. Daily Variety reported that the online ticketing agency Fandango had sold out more than 5,000 domestic screenings. It also quoted Warner Bros. distribution chief Dan Fellman as predicting that the three-day opening will likely rake in $130-140 million but could break the $158 million record for a three-day debut set by The Dark Knight in 2008, if audiences seek out the higher-priced 3D venues. "If 3D is at the 50-percent level, then the uplift is going to push [the film] into an interesting place," Fellman told Variety. Meanwhile, MovieTickets.com has told the Hollywood Reporter that it has seen a dramatic rise in ticket orders via smartphone apps. The company said that 17.4 percent of the tickets sold for Transformers 3 were ordered directly from a mobile phone app.