Harry Potter Shatters Box Office

Boy wonder has shattered box office records across the globe. The fifth installment in the "Harry Potter" series earned a reported $330 million in only 5 days (!) prompting Warner Bros to brand the movie the highest grossing of the franchise of all time.

Have the moviegoers been hungry for a new Potter adventure or are those aged and sexed-up teenagers better at luring mass audiences into movie theaters? Whatever the case, Harry Potter 5 is a smash of gigantic proportions. Ironically, diluted by Wednesday and Thursday its weekend gross was the lowest of all previous movies.

Meanwhile, with the current lifetime gross at $223 million "Transformers" has now become the highest grossing robot-themed movie of all time surpassing Terminator: The Judgment Day.

Katherine Heigl's comedy "Knocked Up" has now earned more than $141 million in the US alone. The movie cost only $30 million to produce and is one of this year's biggest success stories.

Meanwhile, "Live Free or Die Hard" is on a good way to become the highest grossing Die Hard movie of all time. Its current cume is $102 million. Die Hard 2 has thus far been the most successful with $117 million. The movie however cost $110 million to produce, so it will have to earn double that amount to become profitable (its current worldwide gross is $194 million).

Now here's what the rest of the weekend domestic box office cume looks like:

1. "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," $77.4 million.

2. "Transformers," $36 million.

3. "Ratatouille," $18 million.

4. "Live Free or Die Hard," $10.9 million.

5. "License to Wed," $7.4 million.

6. "1408," $5.01 million.

7. "Evan Almighty," $5 million.

8. "Knocked Up," $3.7 million.

9. "Sicko," $2.65 million.

10. "Ocean's Thirteen," $1.9 million.

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Emma Watson: New Face of Chanel

"Harry Potter" star Emma Watson was swamped by autograph seekers in New York City this morning while trying to leave NBC's Today show. British media have revealed the young actress was quietly signed by a modeling agency and is to become the new face of Chanel.

17-year old British actress is already worth over $16 million and after some hesitation she has signed on to do additional two "Harry Potter" movies making the studio sweeten the deal and increase her pay from 2 to 4 million USD per pic.

Storm modeling agency, which is credited for launching the career of Kate Moss, has quietly signed Watson. One of her first gigs? According to well-placed sources, she will shortly be unveiled as the new face of Chanel in a worldwide deal.

Although she has made enough money not to have to work a single day for the rest of her life, Watson says that is not what she intends to do and has plans to finish the "Potter" franchise and then begin studies, possibly at Cambridge University.

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"Harry Potter" Opens BIG

"Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix" just opened in 2,311 theaters at midnight last night and it has already broken a record set by "The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King" by accumulating over $12 million for a Wednesday opening.

The movie has also had the biggest opening of all Potter movies in a number of foreign markets, including France, Korea, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Philippines and Malaysia. "Phoenix" will be the largest global release of any "Potter" movies to date.

Execs at Warner Brothers expect the movie to earn over $100 million over the 5-day run, but industry analysts believe it will go on to earn as much as $125 million. Today the movie is playing on a whopping 4,285 screens across the US. Potter is back bigger than ever!

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Potter Kids Hand, Footprint & Wand Ceremony

Similar to stars of the summer blockbuster "Ocean's 13" a month ago, those big Potter kids Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint basked in the limelight at their hand, footprint and wand (what else?) ceremony at Grauman's Chinese Theater Forecourt in Hollywood on Monday.

Although it normally takes years of struggling and a string of blockbusters in one's resume to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Potter teenagers managed to bypass all those decades to make their marks in cement thanks to the phenomenon of the "Harry Potter" franchise.

The fifth adventure for the teen wizard "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" is released across the globe tomorrow. Ironically, although the movie is based on the longest book in the series, it is the shortest thus far with the net running time 138 minutes.

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