Harry Potter Ruled the Weekend

HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX took in $77.4 million in its first weekend of release, topping the July 13 box office and raising its total take since a Wednesday debut to $140 million, the Associated Press reported. ORDER OF THE PHOENIX also has taken in an additional $190.3 million in 44 other countries where it began rolling out Wednesday. TRANSFORMERS, last weekend's number-one movie, slipped to second place, with $36 million, lifting its total to $223 million. The fifth chapter in the movie series based on J.K. Rowling's novels had a lower opening weekend than the previous four Harry Potter films, which had opening grosses ranging from $88.4 million to $102.7 million. But all of the previous films opened on Friday. ORDER OF THE PHOENIX did more business in five days than each of the first three Potter movies did in their first full week, and it nearly matched the $146 million first week total of the fourth film, HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE.