Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire arrived in theatres with a bang, earning $101.4 million in its opening weekend, the best result yet for the movie franchise.

It is the fourth-best three-day opening weekend in history, behind only Spider Man ($114.8 million) and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and Shrek 2 ($108 million apiece).

Goblet of Fire is the first Harry Potter film to earn a PG-13 rating, but this didn?t deter fans of the boy wizard from flocking to their local theatre.

?The Potter franchise is just irresistible to moviegoers,? says Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations. ?The combination of the Potter books and the love audiences have for the movies conspired a big opening weekend.?

Landing far behind in second place is the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line, which took in $22.4 million.

The computer-animated Disney film Chicken Little dropped from top spot to third place this week, raking in $14.8 million. The Jennifer Aniston thriller Derailed earned $6.5 million and the sci-fi kids adventure Zathura rounded out the top five with $5.1 million.






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