The Warner Bros film Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stonehas taken in IR£19.4 million at box offices in the UK over its first weekend, according to the company's Sunday estimates.
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The total, which includes £8.4 million from previews last weekend, surpassed the opening weekend record held by
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
(which earned £12 million, with previews, in 1999) by 68 per cent.
Saturday's £4.8 million record stands as the UK's biggest single-day gross, beating the preview’s takings one week earlier.
Warner was projecting a Sunday total of £4.15 million, which would be a record Sunday, topping the Toy Storysequel.
The 1,168 print release was the widest-ever in the UK, surpassing Phantom Menace's779 prints and Pearl Harbor's750.
In the United States the film entered the record books with estimated earnings at the box-office of £82.5 million. The figure surpasses the previous record holder The Lost World: Jurassic Parkwhich in 1997 earned £79.6 million in its opening weekend.
Figures for estimated earnings in Ireland are not yet available.