Final Harry Potter film set to break 3D screen record

Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2 is set to be one of the biggest 3D films ever, with Warner Bros revealing it will be shown in more 3D locations in the US than any movie before it.

It's not a surprise that Warner is expecting big things from the final chapter of the Harry Potter franchise, but with the love of 3D cooling in the cinema it is surprising just how big the distributor is going on the 3D.

According to Deadline, the movie is having a mega-release in the US. This constitutes 4,375 cinemas. Out of those cinemas, 3,000 of those will be showing the movie in 3D, on a total of 4,250 screens.

The final Harry Potter will have to go some way to catch Avatar, but which is the biggest blockbuster of all time (and a 3D one at that) but it is whipping the movie on cinema venues.

Avatar managed to be shown in 3,452 cinemas in the US – nearly 1,000 cinemas less than Harry Potter.

Harry Potter has had a chequered past with 3D. The first part of the Deathly Hallows saga was meant to retro-fitted with 3D but its makers ran out of time and budget.

This did mean that more time was spent on the 3D of the second movie. But the big problem for 3D purists is that this technology was put in place in the post-production process and not when the movie was shot.

TechRadar spoke to Steve Schklair from 3ality recently about retro-fitting 3D to movies and he told us: "Creatively it brings nothing to a movie. It is depth for the marketing department to tell all that they have a 3D movie.

"But the audience sits there with the glasses on and complains that the 3D adds nothing to the movie. This isn't helping our business."

On the plus side, RealD is offering up some Harry Potter 3D glasses, which are frankly pretty spell binding.