Harry casts a £16.5m spell across Britain

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix took almost £16.5million in its four-day opening weekend in Britain.

Industry analysts estimate that equates to 5 per cent of the entire UK population watching it in just a few days.

It beats the previous record held by Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, which made £14.3million in its opening weekend. Worldwide, Revenge of the Sith raked in £163million making it the third biggest opening ever.

The latest Potter film, which again stars Daniel Radcliffe as the boy wizard, only lags behind Spider-Man 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End for international opening-weekend records.

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In Order of the Phoenix, Harry and friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, played by Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, again battle the evil Lord Voldemort amid resistance from the Ministry of Magic.

It has been described as the darkest in the series.

But that did not put off US audiences who spent $139.4million (£68.5 million) seeing it, the highest during a five-day nonholiday opening weekend.

The new film is directed by David Yates and cost £75million to make.

It was top of the box office in all 46 countries where it opened, making it the most successful of the franchise to date. Records were broken in Mexico, Brazil, South Korea and Germany.

The five Harry Potter films have so far earned £1.92billion worldwide, and there are still two more to come.

The next instalment in the series will be Harry and the Half-Blood Prince.

Mark Batey, chief executive of the Film Distributors' Association, said: "Harry Potter's success is just astonishing.

"In its first four days, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix has become the tenth-highest grossing film in Britain out of any in the last 12 months.

"We estimate that's equivalent to 5 per cent of the whole population watching it over the opening weekend.

"That just shows how big it is." He added: "They are wonderfully entertaining films and have been beautifully adapted from much-loved books.

"There's no danger of the franchise flagging."

• It is not just in the cinema where fans are going potty for Potter. With a few days to go before the launch of the seventh and final book in the series, advance sales are smashing all records.

More than 2million copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows have been sold on Amazon's socalled online "muggle counter".

That is well above the previous record of 1.5million for the last instalment, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

The demand has forced the Royal Mail to perform a conjuring trick of its own.

The company expects to deliver 600,000 editions of the blockbuster on its release on Saturday. That works out to be, on average, one copy for every 43 homes across the UK.