Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 has passed the $1bn (£609m) mark at the worldwide box office, distributor Warner Bros has said.
The final instalment in the eight-part boy wizard series is the first to reach the milestone.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone had the previous best global takings with $974.8m (£593m) in 2001.
The 2009 epic Avatar holds the current record for the biggest worldwide box office haul with $2.8bn (£1.7bn).
Deathly Hallows: Part 2 is expected to pass Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides soon, which is this year’s top grossing movie so far at $1.03bn (£626m).
The Harry Potter film took $21.9m (£13.3m) at the North American box office over the weekend, climbing to a domestic total of $318.5m (£194m).
It has now topped the franchise’s previous best in the US and Canada of $317.6m (£193.6m) for Philosopher’s Stone.
But taking into account today’s higher admission prices, Deathly Hallows: Part 2 has not yet caught up to Philosopher’s Stone in terms of actual tickets sold.
Smurf battle
Meanwhile, The Smurfs and sci-fi western Cowboys and Aliens tied for the number one spot at the North American box office, both taking $36.2m (£22.1m) according to early estimates.
Definitive figures will be released later on Monday.
“In all my years, I’ve never really seen a race this close,” said Paul Dergarabedian of box office analysts Hollywood.com.
“Generally, in the world of movie box office, $1 million is a close call, so to have two films in a dollar-to-dollar tie is somewhat unprecedented.”
Cowboys and Aliens stars Daniel Craig as an amnesiac wanderer who teams with cattle baron Harrison Ford to take on hulking aliens that invade a town in the Old West.
The Smurfs sees the blue 1980s cartoon creatures brought to the big screen with a voice and live-action cast that includes Katy Perry and Neil Patrick Harris.
-With bbc.co.uk input