Any half-baked theories that Harry Potter has lost his relevance can officially be put to rest as the stunning numbers just came in from last night’s screenings, which began at midnight: $22.2 million.  That beats The Dark Knight’s record of $18.5, handily trounces Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen’s $16 million, and nearly doubles the $12 million that Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix made from its own midnight showings.

It remains to be seen how well Half-Blood Prince can sustain those numbers over its Wednesday to Sunday five-day opening period; conventional wisdom says that since the demand is pent-up, there will be enormous grosses today that will drop off going into the weekend.  Still, we just don’t know enough yet — it’s certainly possible that Half-Blood Prince will match or beat Transformers 2’s $200 million five-day opening.

We’ll keep you updated going into the weekend…