‘Harry Potter’ Moves Into No. 2 Position

“Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” passed “Star Wars: Episode I--The Phantom Menace” to become the second-highest-grossing film ever, Warner Bros. studio said.

“Harry Potter,” the first film based on J.K. Rowling’s popular book series, has sold $926.1 million of tickets worldwide since its November release, passing the $922.8 million grossed by 20th Century Fox’s “Phantom Menace,” which opened in 1999, Warner Bros. said.

Warner parent AOL Time Warner Inc. is counting on “Harry Potter,” which follows the adventures of an orphaned boy wizard, to become a profitable and long-running franchise. “Titanic,” produced and distributed by Fox, a unit of News Corp., and Viacom Inc.’s Paramount Pictures, has grossed $1.84 billion worldwide since its 1997 release, according to the Internet Movie Database.