Harry Potter's Phoenix Rises Above the Competition

Warner Bros.' HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX continued its fast start, conjuring $77.1M in its opening weekend to take first place for the period ended July 15, 2007. With vfx from Double Negative, Framestore CFC, ILM, Cinesite, MPC, Rising Sun and others, the PHOENIX has now run its domestic cume to $149.7M, its foreign to $193M and its total tally to $332.7M.

Slipping to second place was TRANSFORMERS (with vfx from ILM, Digital Domain and others), which captured $37M for a two-week cume of $224M and a worldwide gross of $370.4M. Following in third was Buena Vista's animated RATATOUILLE, which cooked up $18M for a three-week cume of $142.9M. Fox's LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD (with primary vfx from Digital Dimension and The Orphanage) settled for fourth with $11.2M, bringing its total to $103.3M. Warner Bros.' LICENSE TO WED came in fifth with $7.3M and $30.3M. MGM/Weinstein's 1408 held the sixth spot with $4.9M and $62.1M. Universal's EVAN ALMIGHTY (with vfx from ILM, Rhythm & Hues and CafeFX) dropped to seventh with $4.8M for a cume of $87.7M. Universal's KNOCKED UP occupied eighth with $3.6M for a total of $138.2M. Continuing to hold ninth was Lionsgate's SICKO with $2.6M and $15.8M. And holding 10th was Warner Bros.' OCEAN'S THIRTEEN, with $1.9M and $112.5M. Box office information obtained from boxofficemojo.com.