London, July 17 - The new Harry Potter film that opened in cinemas across the world this week has set new US and British records for the first day's takings, its distributors said.

'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' took 4.7 million pounds in ticket sales on its British opening night Wednesday, beating the previous best of three million pounds set by 'Harry Potter and the Prisoner Of Azkaban'.

In the US and Canada, the film based on the popular children's books by British writer J.K. Rowling grossed more than 35 million pounds, including 13 million pounds from midnight shows, distributors Warner Bros said.

The worldwide takings were 63.75 million pounds.

British films raised more than 2.6 billion pounds in worldwide sales last year, not including the multi-Oscar winning hit 'Slumdog Millionaire', which only went on general release around the world in January this year, the UK Film Council said.