Trends come and go, and lately it might seem like the Harry Potter phenomenon has been usurped by the latest craze: The Twilight Saga. And yet, if you look at the numbers, it doesn’t add up: Harry still wins.
The Twilight Saga: New Moon opened this past December to a record-breaking $143 million opening in North America. But fifteen weeks later, it has managed to climb to $296 million — a few notches less than Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’s $302 million total. By the time New Moon finally leaves theaters when the DVD and Blu-Ray come out on March 20th, it will have reached around $297-298 million.
Now naturally, Twilight should be applauded for capturing the hearts and imaginations of women around the world, and a gross just shy of $300 million is a wild success by any measure.
But the aging Harry Potter franchise still managed to beat it. (Worldwide grosses are even more pronounced: Harry Potter made $934 million versus New Moon’s $706 million.) Now we’ll just have to see how The Twilight Saga: Eclipse performs versus Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Part I in this coming year.
They don’t show a heck of a lot, but still, these are indeed official production photos from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The first one seems to take place in 12 Grimmauld Place, while the second could be a lot of things. Right now my guess is it’s right before Harry, Ron, and Hermione infiltrate the Ministry of Magic. Check ‘em out:
While browsing YouTube I managed to find all the deleted scenes on the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince DVD. You can check them out below.
The first half or so are mostly conversations between Harry and Hermione about how and why Draco is disappearing from the castle grounds. After that we get a disturbing story from Dumbledore, the extended pre-climax sequence I posted earlier, and some extended moments between Harry and his friends at the end.
One of the deleted scenes on the upcoming DVD and Blu-Ray release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince just leaked online. Check it out:
It’s easy to tell why they cut it, especially in the late stages of editing when they’re trying to trim the length of the movie down. But even though nothing really happens, it works great at establishing the mood, and would’ve been very cool as part of the lead-up to the violent climax.
You can see this and other scenes when the movie goes on sale on December 8th.
On September 29th, its seventy-seventh day in release, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince broke the $300 million mark here in the U.S.
It’s only the second Potter film after the first, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, to do so.
Overall, grosses for the Potter movies have been climbing since Prisoner of Azkaban:
Sorcerer’s Stone: $318 million
Chamber of Secrets: $262 million
Prisoner of Azkaban: $249 million
Goblet of Fire: $290 million
Order of the Phoenix: $292 million
Half-Blood Prince: $300+ million
But the budgets have also gotten bigger. For some reason, IMDb lists Half-Blood Prince’s budget at $250 million and Order of the Phoenix’s at only $150 million. Wonder what caused the spike?
Of course, when these movies are making $800+ million worldwide, it doesn’t matter a whole lot.
This week, Warner Bros. and Universal officially announced that the Wizarding World of Harry Potter — part of Universal Orlando Resort’s Islands of Adventure theme park — would open in the spring of 2010. This first video is your basic “get excited!” preview, featuring Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson talking it up:
This next video is actually much cooler — it basically takes you on a 3D tour through the entire park:
Buried inside their press release is also a full rundown of what to expect from the park:
– At the entrance of Hogsmeade, billowing steam and an iconic whistle signal the arrival of the Hogwarts Express into Hogsmeade station
– Across the way is Zonko’s, a joke shop with a collection of tricks and jokes, including Extendable Ears, Boxing Telescopes and Sneakoscopes
– Honeydukes is next door and full of treats like Chocolate Frogs and Bertie Bott’s Every-Flavour Beans
– The Three Broomsticks and adjacent Hog’s Head pub will feature traditional British fare and drinks including Butterbeer and pumpkin juice
– Across from the Three Broomsticks is The Owlery, where owls roost and await their next delivery
– The Owl Post sends letters with a certified Hogsmeade postmark and sells official stamps from The Wizarding World of Harry Potter
– Ollivanders wand shop is an incredible interactive experience where the wand chooses the wizard
– Completing Hogsmeade is Dervish and Banges, the magical instruments and equipment shop featuring Quidditch equipment, Triwizard apparel, Spectrespecs and Remembralls
– The first attraction, Dragon Challenge, features a twin high-speed roller coaster with many iconic elements from the Triwizard Tournament
– Next is Flight of the Hippogriff, a family coaster simulating a Hippogriff training flight over the grounds of Hogwarts castle
– Located in Hogwarts castle, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey is a thrilling new state-of-the-art attraction that uses entirely new technology to bring the magic, characters and stories of Harry Potter to life in ways never before experienced.
– Before exiting back into Hogsmeade, Filch’s Emporium of Confiscated Goods is full of Ministry of Magic and magical creatures merchandise, Omnioculars, and even remote control Golden Snitches
It looks awesome, no doubt. But the only thing that really concerns me is the utter lack of rides. Shops all over the place, but for rides, all we get are two roller coasters that were actually already there and are simply being re-branded to fit with the theme of the park.
Well, there’s also the “Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey” attraction, which they’re being deliberately vague about. It’d better be good considering that’s the only part of the park where you actually get to see the inside of Hogwarts.
Harry and Hermione walk through Hogwarts hall (26 seconds)
Harry and Hermione discuss Marauder’s Map (1 minute)
Harry, Ron, and Hermione discuss the Vanishing Cabinet (1 minute, 4 seconds)
Harry and Dumbledore arrive at cave entrance (38 seconds)
Harry and Dumbledore leave cave (19 seconds)
Clouds gather over Hogwarts as Flitwick conducts choir (1 minute, 39 seconds)
Harry joins Ron, Hermione, and Ginny in the Common Room (40 seconds)
Harry and Hermione discuss Ron at Astronomy Tower (42 seconds)
So in other words, a lot of Harry and Hermione, with an extended Harry/Dumbledore cave sequence.
Interesting. The finished film already had a lot of Harry-and-Hermione-being-good-friends scenes, which I thought was a nice touch that had been under-explored in earlier movies. I’m surprised that there was even more.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince made $2.5 million at the U.S. box office this weekend after seven weeks in theaters. Its total gross is now $294.3 million — which, as of Friday, is higher than Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix’s $292 million gross.
That makes Half-Blood Prince the second-highest-grossing Potter film ever, behind only Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’s $317.6. It’s still possible for it to break the $300 million mark, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
Joshua Herdman, who plays Goyle, might’ve spilled the beans last week at a Harry Potter event in the U.K. about where Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be split up into Part 1 and Part 2. According to MuggleNet:
Herdman said that the current plan was to split Deathly Hallows just after the trio are captured by the Snatchers and right before they are taken to Malfoy Manor. Many fans had speculated this is where the split would be, as it will provide quite a cliffhanger between films.
That’s disappointing.
Cliffhangers work in TV shows. When you stick them in movies, people feel robbed. Think The Matrix Reloaded.
A cliffhanger is wholly unnecessary in Deathly Hallows Part 1 because (A) we already know there’s more to come because it’s called “Part 1,” we don’t need to be reminded of it by ending the movie on an unsatisfying note, and (B) everybody’s going to see Part 2 anyway.
The whole point of cliffhangers is to get people talking and come back for more. So if everybody’s coming back for more, and if everybody who read the books already knows full well how it’s resolved, why bother?
MuggleNet also notes that this isn’t the final plan, that the filmmakers could change things up a bit once they get in the editing room and see how things play out. So I guess we can wait and see. But I like my plan better.
Herdman also dropped a bomb about his partner in crime, Jamie Waylett, who plays Crabbe. Since Waylett was arrested and convicted of hemp possession a few months ago, he’s “not expected to come back.” In other words, he was fired. But that has major plot implications on the climax of Deathly Hallows, so if you haven’t read it, stop right now:
Since Crabbe is killed near the end of the book, Herdman said that he — Goyle — would be the one killed now instead. Interesting. I wonder if they’ll mention why Crabbe isn’t there, or just pretend he never existed.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince made $17.9 million in its third weekend in theaters — beating G-Force, the movie that topped Harry the previous weekend. In addition, Half-Blood Prince was down only 39% from last weekend. That’s a smaller-than-normal drop, which Movie Cultists notes is thanks to the film showing up on hundreds of IMAX theaters across the country.
Half-Blood Prince finished the weekend with a new $255.7 million total domestic haul. Since then, it’s been making a steady $2-2.5 million per day, and on Wednesday surpassed the gross of 2002’s Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
It should beat the $292 of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix to become the second-highest grossing Potter film after Sorcerer’s Stone (which made $317). But will it surpass the $300 million mark?
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Plot and Cast Info
Young wizards Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger are facing new challenges and dangers in the wake of Lord Voldemort's return.
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Tom Felton, Helena Bonham Carter
Directed by: David Yates
Produced by: David Heyman, David Barron
Trends come and go, and lately it might seem like the Harry Potter phenomenon has been usurped by the latest craze: The Twilight Saga. And yet, if you look at the numbers, it doesn’t add up: Harry still wins.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
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