Submitted by: kirkland on Sunday June 06th, 2004 at 01:42 PM EST

With a flick of his wand, young wizard Harry Potter conjured up $92.7 million worth of ticket sales at the North American box office with his latest film, setting a new opening record for the hit franchise, according to studio estimates issued on Sunday.

The three-day haul for "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" surpasses the $90.3 million bow for "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" (as the movie was called in North America) in November 2001, and the $88.4 million launch for "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" a year later.

If estimates hold when final data are released on Monday, it will also represent the second-best, three-day opening of all time for a Friday release, behind "Spider-Man," which kicked off with $114.8 million in May 2002. The previous second-best opening was $91.8 million for "The Matrix Reloaded" in May 2003.

The new movie, with the same young cast headed by Daniel Radcliffe as the titular hero, was directed by Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron, and was generally praised by critics for taking "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling's characters into darker territory than the first two, which were directed by Chris Columbus. In "Azkaban," the youngster must put aside his fears to confront an escaped prisoner, played by Gary Oldman.

The box office champ for the last two weekends, "Shrek 2," slipped to No. 2 with $37 million, taking its total after three weekends to $313.6 million, which ranks as the 15th highest-grossing tally of all time.

The computer-animated fable passed $300 million on Saturday, its 18th day, beating the record of 22 days held by "Spider-Man." The next record in its sights is that of highest-grossing animated film, currently held by "Finding Nemo," which had a $339 million catch last year. "Shrek 2" was released by DreamWorks SKG.

» Read full story @ Reuters
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