Those who saw the film did love it

Those who saw the film did love it, giving it an average grade of A, according to market research film CinemaScore. "Deathly Hallows Part 2," also the best-reviewed film of the series, appealed to a broad audience, though the crowd was somewhat more female (54 percent) than male (46 percent). Folks of all ages saw the movie: 28 percent of the crowd was younger than 18, while 20 percent was between the ages of 45 and 49. The film was also the first in the franchise to be released in 3-D, and about 43 percent of the audience watched it in that format.

"Avatar," the highest-grossing film in the history of the box office, grossed $2.8 billion worldwide in 2009 — a record "Deathly Hallows Part 2" likely won't come close to touching. The majority of the audience who saw the James Cameron film watched it in 3-D, but "Potter" fans do not appear to be as eager to purchase a pricier ticket to do the same.

"To expect this 'Potter' movie to do 'Avatar' numbers isn't realistic when none of the other 'Potter' films have done over a billion dollars worldwide," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of the box office division for Hollywood.com. "Certainly this is going to be the 'Potter' film that gets over a billion dollars. And only eight films have ever earned over a billion dollars at the worldwide box office."

The final "Potter," Dergarabedian believes, does have a viable shot of becoming the third highest-grossing film of all time, behind "Avatar" and "Titanic," which made $1.8 billion globally in 1997. Unlike those movies, however, "Harry Potter" has a host of ancillary marketing opportunities, including theme parks and video games that will continue to make money for Warner Bros. outside of the film franchise for years to come.

Interestingly, a bulk of the U.S. business for "Deathly Hallows Part 2" came from Salt Lake City. Utah's Megaplex Theaters at Jordan Commons sold more tickets to the final "Potter" film than any other theater in the country with $360,400 in receipts. Theaters in New York and San Francisco followed behind, but the fifth highest-grossing theater was also in Salt Lake.