All-time bests

Just half a year of Harry Potter was enough to lift Universal Orlando's full-year attendance by 20 percent, the resort said Monday. Universal said it drew 11.2 million visitors in 2010, an increase of nearly 2 million from 2009, as huge crowds descended on the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, which opened in mid-June in the resort's Islands of Adventure theme park.

It was Universal's highest attendance since 2004, when it drew 12.1 million people, and third-best in the resort's history. The two-park resort recorded even bigger gains in other categories. Annual revenue leapt 41 percent to $1.1 billion, as tourists paid higher prices for tickets and then plunked down cash for magic wands, chocolate frogs and other Potter-themed souvenirs and food. Operating profit soared 79 percent to $267 million. Both were all-time bests for Universal.