'Harry Potter' debut box office inches higher

(L-R) Alicia Limon, Scott Johnson, Danny Conn and Vanessa Limon, dressed up as their favorite characters, join the crowds line up to be the first to see the new Harry Potter movie "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2" at a minute after midnight in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles, California July 14, 2011.[Photo/Agencies]

The record-breaking debut of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2" got a little more magical on Monday when the Warner Bros. studio raised its final, worldwide opening box office tally to $481.5 million.

The final figure for the movie's three-day U.S. and Canadian debut rose slightly to $169.2 million from Sunday's preliminary estimate of $168.5 million. Internationally, the movie collected $312.3 million since its release last week, up from an estimate of $307 million on Sunday.

"Deathly Hallows - Part 2," the eighth film in the "Harry Potter" series about a teenage wizard and his friends, broke all sorts of records in its global debut.

In the United States and Canada (domestic markets), it beat the three-day opening weekend record of $158.4 million held by 2008 Batman movie, "The Dark Knight." It also set domestic records for the largest opening-day sales total, largest midnight screenings and largest opening on giant IMAX screens.

The movie similarly smashed records in numerous countries.

Overall, the prior record for an overseas opening belonged to "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides," the fourth installment of the series released in May, which took in about $260 million outside the U.S. and Canada in its debut.

Warner Bros. is a unit of Time Warner Inc.