Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 2 didn’t hit the $180 million some expected it would, but it did have the biggest opening weekend ever at $168.5 million.

The former record holder was The Dark Knight at $158.4 million, and factoring in the extra fees for 3D, attendance was slightly lower, but still impressive for the last film in the Harry Potter series.  (Sidenote: When are we going to start paying more attention to attendance than dollar amount?  It’s the only true measure.)  Missing the projected $180 million can be chalked up to a 53 percent decline from Friday to Saturday, a far steeper fall than one would usually expect.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon fell to second place with a 55 percent decline to an estimated $21.25 million. It does however mark the first film of the year to cross the $300 million domestic gross milestone, and has now racked up a total of $762.8 million.

Horrible Bosses came in third with an estimated $17.6 million, marking a decline of only 38 percent, a very respectable amount.

Zookeeper fell only 39 percent to come in at fourth with $12.3 million. It fell less than most, but when you start at such a low level, you don’t have to go.

Rounding out the top five was Cars 2 with $8.3 million.  It looks like Pixar may have finally made a misstep with this film as it is trailing far enough back now from the studio’s other features to mark a 12 year low.

Green Lantern? 14th place with $1.25 million for a total of $112.6 million. This really has become like watching a train wreck.

Next weekend sees the release of Captain America: The First Avenger and Friends With Benefits.

Considering the competition it was facing, it isn’t all that surprising that Transformers: Dark of the Moon won another weekend at the box office.

Falling 52% from it’s opening weekend, the third Transformers film brought in another $47 million and is actually doing quite well, and is holding onto it’s audience better than the second film did.

Horrible Bosses came in second with an estimated $28.1 million, the best opening ever for a dark comedy. Compared to other comedies this summer it fell into about the middle of the pack financially, but with a $35 million dollar budget, it needs to hit a minimum of $70 million total, and it may have a tough time getting there.

Opening in third was Kevin James’ Zookeeper with $21 million. How does this guy keep getting work, and why do people go and see it? He seems like a likable guy in interviews, but he’s just not that funny with scripted material.

Cars 2 settled somewhat with a 42 percent drop to $15.2 million for the weekend, but it is now trailing behind the first film on a day-by-day count.

Bad Teacher fell 38 percent to $9 million with a new total gross of $72.8 million off of a $20 million budget. Cheap comedies work, folks.

Larry Crowne fell 52% to $6.3 million and has about no hope of breaking even now. Perhaps the days of Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts as box office draws has come to a close?

And just because it’s become like a sport now, Green Lantern was in ninth place with $3.1 million. It’s now at $109.7 million for a total domestic gross on a $200 million budget. This film is going to go down in history as an object lesson in how to blow a film that should have been a homerun.

Next weekend sees the final movie in the Harry Potter series released. My suspicion is we will see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 2 comfortably take the lead.

In a surprise to absolutely no one, Transformers: Dark of the Moon won the box office this weekend, and even set a record in the process.

Despite having its opening day moved around more times than anyone could count, the third Transformers movie won the weekend box office even with having been out a few days prior.  For the three day weekend (Friday, Saturday and Sunday), the film brought in $97.4 million.  Add in the Monday numbers, it is estimated the film will have brought in $116.4 million.  This puts it six percent behind the second film, but still a healthy take.

Also of no surprise, mixed reviews seem to have had no impact on the film’s performance.

Cars 2 had a bummer of a weekend, sliding 60 percent from it’s opening weekend to only ring up $26.2 million for the three days, and $32.1 million for the extended holiday. This puts it well down the list of Pixar success stories, but Cars has never been a big earner at the box office, but it does huge in merchandise.

Bad Teacher slid 54 percent to $14.5 million ($17.6 million four-day). It’s grossed $63 million thus far in 11 days, and considering its $20 million budget, it’s already a success story.

The new Tom Hanks/Julia Roberts film Larry Crowne bombed in a big way, opening at 2,973 locations, the production only brought in $13.1 million ($15.7 million four-day). It only had a $30 million budget, and with these mega-stars attached you would have thought it would have brought in larger numbers.

Rounding out the top 5 was Super 8 with $7.8/$9.5 for the three and four day totals.

Monte Carlo cane un sixth with an estimated $7.4 million ($8.8 million four-day). You mean that yet another movie about mistaken identities didn’t do well? I’m shocked, I tell you, SHOCKED!

Where’s Green Lantern you ask? Oh, just sliding another 64 percent to come in seventh with $6.5/$8 million for the weekend. I’d laugh if my hopes hadn’t been so high for this disaster.

Next weekends is all comedies with Horrible Bosses and Zookeeper. The former has potential, the latter makes my brain hurt just watching the commercials.

Cars 2 sped into first place this weekend, but before you sound the horn, there are a couple caveats.

Cars 2 did indeed come in first this weekend with an estimated $68 million, but as Pixar films go, that’s nothing to sing about. Going on attendance as opposed to dollars due to inflation, the second film in the series only beat out A Bug’s Life, Ratatouille and Toy Story. While people weren’t exactly clamoring for this sequel, the merchandising from the first movie did so well that it is believed that is about the only reason this film exists. Another movie, more merchandise.

We’ll see how it fares with a couple more weekends,but it doesn’t look like this one will be setting the film world on fire like some of the previous Pixar productions.

Coming in second was the new Cameron Diaz vehicle, Bad Teacher.  It brought in an estimated $31 million, but Sony has to be singing songs of happiness today as the audience skewed 63 percent female.  Along the same lines as the current hit Bridesmaids that is still bringing in several million a week.

Normally a film sees around a 40 to 50 percent drop in its second weekend. Then you have Green Lantern. Coming in at $18.5 million, that’s around a 65 percent drop from the first weekend. I think we can officially classify this movie as a disaster at this point.

Super 8 came in fourth with $12.1 million, bringing it’s total to $95.2 million and in line with films of this type.

Rounding out the top five Mr. Popper’s Penguins with $10.3 million.  The fact this movie even exists boggles my mind, so lets just leave it there.

The only major release next week is Transformers: Dark of the Moon … PREPARE FOR BAYHEM!

Yes, it’s true, a $53.2 million opening weekend is a disappointment in this day and age for big budget films. Add in the fact that Green Lantern was supposed to shepherd in a new age of movies based on DC Comics, and it gets even worse.

Where the issues for Green Lantern really kick in is that revenue dropped 22 percent between Friday and Saturday, a far larger than usual number for a major film.  There is no way the pounding this film took from the critics didn’t play a factor, and the average comments on sites such as Twitter that I saw over the weekend eld me to believe the paid reviewers got it right this time.

The final insult?  Based on attendance instead of dollar amount, Green Lantern fared worse than Daredevil or Ghost Rider … ouch.

Coming in second was Super 8 with $21.2 million, just over a 40 percent decline from last week, but seeing as 50 percent is considered average, this film may have some legs to it.

Mr. Popper’s Penguins opened in third place with $18.2 million.  I think this means we’re officially over Jim Carrey, and I for once couldn’t be happier about this.  He hasn’t been funny in years, and even then it was very touch and go when he actually was good.  Even discounting Carrey, this film did poorly for a summer family film, apparently no one wanted to watch a movie about a guy with penguins in his house.

X-Men: First Class came in third with $11.5 million and a decline of 52.5 percent from last weekend.  This marks the third worst weekend for any X-Men film, so it looks like this one is definitely not living up to expectations.

Rounding out the top 5 was The Hangover: Part II with $9.6 million, off 45.5 percent from last weekend.  It’s still at $233.1 million domestic gross, however, off of an $80 million dollar budget.  Translation?  It’s in the black.  I still would say a third film is on the way.

Other recent films such as Kung-Fu Panda 2 took a major hit, falling to sixth and not performing anywhere near expectations with $8.7 million this weekend. Bridesmaids brought in nearly $7.5 million and just keeps chugging along. This movie just won’t quit.

Next week?  Cars 2 from Pixar … prepare for an astronomical number.