'Harry' drops back, 'Captain' takes helm

LOS ANGELES -- In a battle of summer movie heroes, Captain America topped Harry Potter this weekend at the box office.

Paramount Pictures' "Captain America: The First Avenger" opened at No. 1 with $65.8 million, according to Sunday studio estimates. The Marvel Comics superhero adventure sets up next summer's all-star blockbuster "The Avengers."

Warner Bros.' "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2," the eighth and final installment in the boy-wizard franchise, dropped to the second spot. It made just over $48 million in its second weekend for a domestic total of $274.1 million.

Internationally, "Captain America: The First Avenger" opened only in Italy with $2.8 million.

"Harry Potter" dropped 72 percent from its record-setting opening of $169.2 million last weekend. But as box-office analyst Paul Dergarabedian of Hollywood.com pointed out, this final "Potter" picture made $43 million in its first midnight showings alone.

Meanwhile, the 3-D "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" became the highest-grossing movie ever distributed by Paramount Pictures International.

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2. "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2," $48 million.

3. "Friends With Benefits," $18.5 million.

4. "Transformers: Dark of the Moon," $12 million.

5. "Horrible Bosses," $11.7 million.

6. "Zookeeper," $8.7 million.

8. "Winnie the Pooh," $5.1 million.

9. "Bad Teacher," $2.6 million.