By Dean Goodman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Super spy James Bond outwitted young wizard Harry Potter at the North American box office, stirring up a new record for the venerable 007 franchise, according to studio estimates issued on Sunday.

"Die Another Day," marking Pierce Brosnan's fourth assignment as the suave English agent, opened at No. 1 with an estimated three-day tally of $47 million from 3,314 theaters across the United States and Canada.

It beat the record held by the last Bond movie, "The World Is Not Enough," which opened with $35.5 million in 1999. It also marks the second-biggest bow for distributor Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc, after last year's "Hannibal" ($58 million).

Last weekend's champ, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," slipped to No. 2 with $42.4 million from 3,682 theaters in its second round. "Friday After Next," the third installment in rapper Ice Cube's "Friday" comedies, opened at No. 3 with $13.1 million from about 1,600 theaters.

The Bond film marks the 20th official release since Sean Connery kicked off the series with "Dr. No" in 1962. The $125 million production was directed by New Zealander Lee Tamahori.

Oscar-winner Halle Berry co-starred as Jinx, an American spy who teams up with Bond to take on a North Korean bad guy. Her casting brought out more black moviegoers than usual, said Erik Lomis, MGM's president of theatrical distribution.

"COOLEST GUY ON EARTH"

Exit polling indicated 85 percent of all moviegoers rated "Die Another Day" either very good or excellent, with 70 percent saying they would definitely recommend it, Lomis said. "I think that the public thinks that James Bond is the coolest guy on Earth."

In its initial foreign outings, Bond also shook up some strong numbers in Britain, Spain, France and French-speaking Switzerland. Its total foreign tally was $23 million, MGM said.

Harry Potter, meanwhile, has conjured up $148.5 million after 10 days in North American release. The Warner Bros. release passed the century mark in its sixth day of release, just one day slower than its 2001 predecessor, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." The studio, a unit of AOL Time Warner Inc, is braced for a strong third weekend, when sales will benefit from the Thanksgiving holiday, a four-day break for many Americans.

The family fantasy's foreign total rose to $128 million after a $55 million weekend haul from 20 countries, a Warner Bros. statement said. The film opened in Japan, the biggest overseas market, with a record $16 million. After two weekends, "Harry Potter" has earned $52 million in Britain and $32 million in Germany.

"Friday After Next," follows Ice Cube's farcical attempts to track down an evil Santa. Ice Cube also produced and wrote the script. The film, budgeted at just under $20 million, played well to young audiences across all races, said a spokeswoman for the film's distributor, New Line Cinema, also a unit of AOL Time Warner.

Its predecessor, "Next Friday," opened at No. 1 with $13.9 million during the Martin Luther King holiday weekend in 2000.

Rounding out the top five were the Tim Allen comedy "The Santa Clause" at No. 4 with $10.3 million, and the Eminem drama "8 Mile" at No. 5 with $8.7 million. Their respective totals are $95 million after 24 days, and $97.7 million after 17 days.

The top 10 contained one other new release, the Kevin Kline school drama "The Emperor's Club," which opened at No. 7 with $4.1 million from a barely wide release of just 809 theaters. By contrast, the top two movies played on more than 3,000 theaters each.

"The Santa Clause 2" was released by Walt Disney Pictures, a unit of Walt Disney Co "8 Mile" and "The Emperor's Club" were released by Universal Pictures, a unit of Vivendi Universal SA .

1. Die Another Day .......... $47,072,040

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $47,072,040

2. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets .......... $42,227,263

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $148,358,831

3. Friday After Next .......... $13,010,767

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $13,010,767

4. The Santa Clause 2 .......... $10,210,369

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $94,944,099

5. 8 Mile .......... $8,620,975

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $97,579,500

6. The Ring .......... $7,560,200

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $110,837,875

7. The Emperor's Club .......... $3,846,780

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $3,846,780

8. My Big Fat Greek Wedding .......... $3,657,055

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $204,520,221

9. Half Past Dead .......... $3,125,916

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $12,501,542

10. Frida .......... $2,369,554

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $12,055,767

John L.: The yearly box office continues to rise to record levels as Bond and Potter rule all that is canola oily. Greeks are chic as My Big Fat Greek Wedding hits an unbelievable $200 million mark. It is quite possibly the most successful film ever made. Friday continues to be the longest day of the week for Ice Cube as his franchise continues to rake in good amounts of cash. Kevin Kline showed up as an inspirational teacher who does not want to be compared to dead poets to mediocre results. Full review of Bond this week as well as a look back at the entire series of spy films.

The 20th official James Bond movie has been released and it is a doozy. Die Another Day is one of the more action packed Double Oh Seven pictures since possibly "For Your Eyes Only" and is definitely one of the better Pierce Brosnan efforts. Plot is never a necessary aspect of these films, but this one is somewhat intriguing that telling too much actually spoils some surprises. I will say it starts off with Bond trying to assasinate a North Korean nutjob which leads to a chase sequence on a hovercraft floating over land mines to one of the most unexpected moments in the entire run of the movies. Bond actually is defeated in the opening action sequence which is an unheard of event. Of course he does not die, but once he gets out of his predicament, the rest of the movie is him getting revenge on those who stopped his orders. Brosnan grows more comfortable with every 007 film he does and now he literally just walks through much of the movie, but still has that vulnerable attitude that makes him a little special. Pierce is always cool when he gets going, but fear does come across his face when things get a bit too hairy. He is nothing like the Sean Connery characterization, and is very much channelling the lost soul of Roger Moore when after a very harrowing escape he casually walks into a hotel and checks in for the night looking very worse the wear. However, this is played as a subtle jab at the cliches of past Bond movies and works. One has to laugh that a movie based on a 50 year old concept can still sell out cineplexes world wide. Every year studios try to come up with the successor to this franchise and they still can't get it right. XXX wouldn't last 2 minutes in Bond's world. Bond girls are getting more feisty as of late, and Halle Berry as Jinx tries to be different from the Molly Goodheads and Miss Goodknights of the world and comes off okay, but still a notch below Michelle Yeoh in "Tomorrow Never Dies" in the self sufficiency category. Berry's Jinx is an American NSA agent, who is tracking the same villains as Bond is and she has her moments, but there are two key sequences where Jinx is in peril and needed Bond to save her bikinied bottom. To establish her as a threat and a force, she should have rescued Bond at least once and escaped all of her personal dangers like laser beams and drowning on her own. Those two bits make her look weak and gives serious doubt to anyone taking her seriously as an acion heroine in her own movie spinoff. To be honest, Jinx, much like Denise Richards' Christmas Jones in "The World is Not Enough" just gets in the way. However, I must say that when this movie comes out on DVD I will be re-playing Berry's walk out of the ocean hip swivel in repeat mode over and over again. So all is good. Toby Stephens is Gustav Graves, the meglomaniac who somehow is given access to a multi billion dollar satellite that can wreck havoc across the world. If I was James Bond instead of blowing up hollowed out volcanoes, I would start targeting the ACME Satellite Manufacturing Company with some TNT and an anvil. Stephens overacts every moment he is on screen and does it well. The villainy of Graves turns out to be much more than what is on the surface, and it helps make him the best Bond nemesis since Goldeneye's Trevelyan. Rosamund Pike as Miranda Frost is the femme fatale of the film as she is working undercover to take down Graves. I preferred her as the Bond Girl of the moment than Berry since Frost has a somewhat meatier role though smaller. I must say though that Frost and Berry make up the most attractive "oh James" pairing ever. The most important aspect to me in a Bond movie after the basic stunt work is how is the main henchman bad guy. Is he any good. Oddjob and Jaws are the two classics, and there have not been any good ones since Jaws turned good in Moonraker. Rick Yune plays Zao, the crazed Korean who hates Bond for disfiguring his face with a handful of diamonds. This guy has a cool look and his car chase with Bond in Iceland is literally the coolest thing you will see on film this year. Zao gets short changed on the screen time, but he makes up for it by the end. Since the untimely death of long time bond actor, Desmond Llewellyn as Q, the very capable John Cleese has been promoted to the position as the gadget guru who has to suffer through Bond's constant tinkering with the untested goodies. Judi Dench continues to play M in her own menacingly way. You can actually sense a tinge of fear when Dench enters a scene to chastise Bond for his unorthodox methods of getting the job done. If Bond was 20 years older, he would hit that I bet. She is really good as M, and even though it is somewhat beneath this Oscar winning actress to play this role, you can tell that she is having fun with it. Work is work. Oh yeah, Madonna Ciccone shows up as a fencing instructor and gets to say a double entendre to excite her fans. Her Die Another Day theme song is sort of catchy in a synthetic sort of way. Die Another Day puts James Bond in some of his most precarious challenges ever as he gets beat soundly for the first time. Things like that are enough of a difference to warrant making these movies as they somehow continue to enthrall the general public. MGM should give mad props to the Turner Broadcast and The National Networks for keeping the name of Bond, James Bond alive. I am still a bigger fan of Tomorrow Never Dies when it comes to Brosnan Bond, but Die Another Day shows that the title is very appropos as the death of this series will definitely have to expire some other time long after we are all gone. Final Review: 3 stars out of 5; 7 out of 10; B+; thumbs up.