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.

I know people are always looking for new ways to make revenue, but sometimes it reaches a level that just boggles the mind.  And when it goes to some of these extreme levels, you have to wonder how effective it could even be.  Do people really pay that much attention to advertising?

Case in point, some eagle-eyed viewer of a How I Met Your Mother rerun from 2007 spotted an ad for the new Kevin James movie Zookeeper that just came out this weekend.  No, it didn’t run during the commercial slots, it was in the actual episode itself, digitally inserted there so as to just be residing in the background.  The Consumerist posted comparison photos of the scene.

And now the original scene.

The original scene was taken from a DCD release of the show, and as you can see there was no book or magazine on the table behind the character.

Does this type of advertising even work?  Did anyone see this rerun and immediately go, “Leaping lizards!  I must now go see Zookeeper!”?  I highly doubt it.  Someone, somewhere, is selling advertisers a bill of goods, and I can’t believe anyone with even a modicum of sense would say, “Wow, I bet that would really work to get our product’s name out there.”  I’m not sure if I’m more annoyed with the ad rep or the schmuck that fell for it.

In general I don’t find TV ads have even the remotest impact on me anymore.  Even if I’m not zipping through them on my DVR, and I let them play naturally, I pay no attention to them.  I know they are full of questionable claims and results that they will only live up to under the most perfect of conditions.  And product placement in shows?  Absolutely no impact on me.  But digitally inserting magazine ads into a show in the background?  How does that even begin to have any influence on anyone?

Somewhere, someone is getting a gold “Thank You” watch for coming up with this idea while another exec is getting busted down to the mailroom for buying it.