Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to make great profits for Warner Bros.

The first five Harry Potter movies have been a massive source of revenue and profit for Warner Bros.

Photo: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to make great profits for Warner Bros.

At the box office alone, it has made $4.5 billion, an average of $897 million, making it the most successful film franchise of all time, behind James Bond. But the release of the new Potter is set to push the Bond franchise back into second place, Telegraph.co.uk reports.

Advance sales of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" are outpacing those of current box-office champ "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" and of 2007's "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" at a similar point in their sales cycles.

Eight days before its July 15 opening, "Prince" accounted for 65 percent of daily ticket sales, online ticketer Fandango said Tuesday, Reuters reports.

Meanwhile the teenage stars of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, including Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, braved torrential rain as they arrived for the film's world premiere last night.

They were greeted by thousands of fans who gathered in London's Leicester Square to celebrate the release of the sixth film in the JK Rowling series.

Many had queued since the early hours to get autographs of the stars. Despite monsoon-like conditions Radcliffe spent an hour chatting to fans, leaving his suit soaked to the skin, Telegraph.co.uk reports.