There's just no stopping Harry Potter and company. While the books have long since ceased to be a massive phenomenon, the movies apparently will do well until the 8-film series runs its course. The latest installment, the long-awaited Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince, flew into multiplexes on its broomstick Wednesday, amassing a staggering $159.6 million in its opening week. The official weekend tally is $79.4 million, but given that the film drew a lot of viewers on Wednesday and Thursday, the final haul is even more impressive.

Hell, I was even tempted to go see the movie this weekend, and I've never seen a Harry Potter film in theaters! Making the films grow up as the characters grow up has been a brilliant idea, and I expect you'll see more of this gradual aging in a young adult book series. Toss in a random graphic murder scene in the next one and I'm there.

The rest of the box office is mostly holdovers. Some films, like Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs, held up fairly well. In its third week of release, the third Ice Age film captured second place at the box office with $17.7 million, holding its audience pretty well versus the juggernaut half-Muggle. Bruno, however, suffered from poor word of mouth and tumbled from first last weekend to fourth this weekend thanks to a box office take of $8.3 million, dropping over 70 percent of its business. Even Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen held onto more of its audience (third place, $13.7 million), and its word of mouth was just as bad as Bruno's, maybe worse.

The problem Bruno has faced is that, no matter how outrageous it might have been, it wouldn't be enough. The Hangover (fifth place, $8.3 million) had the benefit of being both a complete surprise and being the first big summer shock comedy. It also has great word of mouth, tremendous star-making buzz, and, of course, Mike Tyson. How was Bruno supposed to be able to top this summer's Borat again? The movie put itself in a rough spot from the get-go because its marketing campaign was best summed up as, ‘Hey, remember Borat? I sure hope so, because he's back and he's gayer than ever!'

The Proposal drops to sixth place this weekend, on $8.29 million at the box office. This quiet romantic comedy has somehow amassed $128 million dollars in the US, which makes it Sandra Bullock's biggest hit since Speed and Ryan Reynolds biggest non-tights effort since, err... ever. I think the secret is Betty White. She should do more movies. Her performance in Lake Placid is one of the funniest things ever.

Public Enemies falls to seventh this weekend on $7.59 million at the box office, thereby dashing my hopes for a full-fledged comeback for men's hats. Up is also losing a lot of its steam due to losing a lot of 3-D theaters, sinking to eighth at the box office on $3.3 million. For a risky picture (a cartoon starring a grumpy old man), it has done very well, bringing in nearly $280 million in the US alone.

My Sister's Keeper is ninth this weekend, on $2.8 million (with a surprising $41 million total gross), while the disappointing I Love You Beth Cooper has been a bust, falling to tenth at the box office with only $2.66 million and $10 million overall. While the movie was fairly cheap to make, it was marketed heavily. Fox is taking a bath on this one.

There's a weird slate of movies coming out this weekend. Disney throws itself directly at the Ice Age audience with G-Force, which looks like the sort of dreck that has dethroned the former king of animation. There's also the horror yarn The Orphan, which makes the killer orphan the most played out cliché in horror since the ‘I'm home alone and there's a maniac on the loose so I better take a shower' girl.

In a vain stab at the adult market, Gerard Butler and Katherine Heigl bow next week with The Ugly Truth. In a bit of ugly truth, has anyone squandered her good will cachet faster than Katherine Heigl has? She blew her Grey's Anatomy love thanks to acting like a big star and she's burned up her Knocked Up praise by pumping out romantic comedies.

Talk about not capitalizing. The upcoming weekend will still belong to Harry, but G-Force will be a strong second.