'Potter' casts opening spell

LOS ANGELES -- Harry Potter remains a box-office charmer.

The Warner Bros. fantasy sequel "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" conjured up a $77.4 million debut to lead the weekend box office, according to studio estimates yesterday. That raised the movie's total domestic gross to $140 million since opening Wednesday.

"Transformers," the DreamWorks-Paramount sci-fi tale that was the previous weekend's No. 1 movie, slipped to second with $36 million. The weekend's other new wide release, grisly horror story "Captivity" from Lionsgate and After Dark Films, opened out of the top 10 with $1.55 million, coming in at No. 12.

The previous four "Harry Potter" movies all had bigger first weekends, ranging from $88.4 million to $102.7 million, but those all had Friday debuts. "Order of the Phoenix" was the first to get a jump on the weekend with a Wednesday opening.

ASSOCIATED PRESS