Harry Potter set to overtake James Bond as top-grossing franchise in movie history

 

By Olivia Smith

DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Tuesday, July 14th 2009, 12:10 PM

Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, and Daniel Craig as James Bond. The 'Harry Potter' franchise is set to overtake the Bond films as the top-grossing series in box office history.

 

Potter. Harry Potter.

Someone pour James Bond a martini. The boy wizard is on the verge of overtaking 007 as the top-grossing movie franchise of all time, Variety.com reports.

The past five "Harry Potter" movies have grossed a total of $4.48 billion worldwide at the box office. The James Bond movies come in at $5 billion over the course of 22 films, starting with "Dr. No" in 1962.

But Wednesday night's witching-hour Potter screenings will put it on the road to the top of the box office pile. The "Harry Potter" franchise is expected to surpass the British spy thrillers by the end of July.

The film will begin casting its spell on movie-goers at 4,300 theaters in the U.S. tonight, and thousands more in 64 countries and territories across the globe, including every major market.

In New York's five boroughs alone there will be more than 100 sold out midnight shows, and nearly 2,000 screenings are sold out nationwide, Fandango.com reports.

"It's our fastest ticket-seller since 'The Dark Knight,' and 'Harry' may eventually outpace Batman in advance ticket sales," said Rick Butler, chief operating officer of Fandango.

Butler adds that the delay of the movie's release - it was originally slated for last November - has fueled even more interest in the new movie after fans had to wait longer than expected for their Potter fix.

CHOOSE

 

EMMA WATSON VS. EVERY BOND GIRL COMBINED

 

 

Who do you choose?

emma watson!

is that a rhetorical question?

:dozey:

saw it.

 

So it didn't absolutely blow me away, in fact there are some parts that would've seriously annoyed if I was still the canonist I was five years ago. But in the same breath, it did achieve a level of quality and enjoyment that the last two films seriously lacked.

 

For the most part it maintains the integrity of the book, albeit while presenting a strongly different interpretation of the characters and events. What they basically did was take the main plot and develop it further, allowing for more colorful characters and fresh, original dialogue. This is where the movie ultimately triumphs, in that Radcliffe, Watson and Grint are given much more freedom to flourish and share the spotlight.

In OOTP Emma and Rupert basically stood around and looked serious throughout. It was tough to compliment their portrayals because there was virtually nothing to work with. The film focused so much on the isolation that Harry endured that, consequently, intimacy suffered and the audience became much more isolated from the characters, only watching their predictable reactions.

 

HBP is a sharp turnaround, though, because the trio were each given their own individual doses of comedy and tragedy to truly shine. In fact its the comedy that stands out most in this movie, for Ron under the love potion, and Harry under Felix Felicis are absolutely hysterical and priceless! Harry especially appears more like Dan fooling around on set, stretching outside the parameters of 'typical' Harry Potter movie dialogue. Acting in general... from Lavender to Slughorn to Malfoy (Felton does amazingly in this movie!) is really sharp and far from disapointing.

 

On the negative side, the fight at the burrow is completely and utterly superflous, and worse doesn't fit into the rest of the movie. It serves no purpose other than a quick flash of action. What irks me the most is that we were told the end battle was scrapped in order to avoid repetition

you see, after dumbledore is killed Harry is the only one chasing after the death eaters, so there's little or no conflict...

. I can't help thinking that it was the action from the completely made-up burrow scene that made Yates decide to omit the actual action from the book at the end.

 

While most of the really big scenes like the cave, and the sectusempra fight are dramatized, they aren't too over the top, but are in fact very beautiful and powerful. I have some reservations about the tower scene which I think could've been much more emotional and dramatic if it stayed closer to the book, but by no means is it butchered or ruined like we feared.

 

Other minor complaints include the fact they didn't explain Dumbledore's hand, and Harry isn't petrified at the end which would've been loads better..

 

Overall, I think its the most enjoyable movie so far, with a lot more laughs and better characters, but its not perfect by a longshot. 7.8/10?

Wow some review you got. Do you write for a magazine or a newspaper?

I just need to know one thing:

 

Was it as sucktacular as Order of the Phoenix? That's all I need to decide to see it or not.

dp

tp

I hated Order of the Pheonix so I was a bit skeptical going in to see Half Blood Prince. Having seen it though, I'm actually very happy with this film. The acting is great, everyone seems much more natural and you don't just see the actors 'acting.' Also, the story isn't told through exposition, instead you actually see events happening which really makes a difference and contributes to the improvement from the Order of the Pheonix. This is also why Tnspieler may have missed the explanation of Dumbledores hand because he doesn't spell it out, but you can definately work out what happened in the scene where he and Harry have finally seen Slughorns complete memory and talk about Horcruxes.

 

My only dissapointment was bits of the ending, I agree with Tnspieler in that the tower scene could have been much more intense if they had stuck more to the book. I also wish they had kept the end battle.

 

Overall, I think Half Blood Prince is a much more intelligent film than the others have been. The dialogue isn't dumbed down, you can actually observe the relationships develop, and there's a lot of set up for the HP7. Knowing the ending of the series definately influenced the filmakers in a good way.

haha has anyone seen this? it's really really funny, and also very true

 

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkAFjVWJy4c]YouTube - Dumbledore Review[/ame]

 

 

 

On the subject, how did Gambon do as Dumbledore in HBP? (please don't give anything major away ;))

^ :lol: basically said out loud what us nerds have been thinking for years

 

Gambon did better this time around, but still doesn't get the role quite right. There aren't any loud outbursts at all, which is a +, and at times he can even be delightful and humorous (the beginning mostly), but the way he talks still feels a bit stern, strange, and un-dumbledorish. However, he does a pretty good job at all of the really important scenes (cave, tower), so don't be afraid of him screwing things up if you haven't seen it yet.

that video made me sad and made me laugh. all the pictures of Richard Harris made me miss him

 

and then there was the "imagine hugging this guy. he'd be all sweaty and stinky, and his breath would smell like beef and cheese" LMAO

anybody else think Gambon looked a bit too much like Gandalf right before they went to the cave?

Yep, glad I wasn't the only one who thought that.

Just arrived from the cinema, and there's just one tiny little thing i wanna say...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WHERE DA FUCK IS MY MCGONAGALL VS SNAPE BATTLE, BITCHES???!

 

Isn't that in deathly hallows? :thinking:

I meant when Snape is trying to get away from the school and McGonagall tries to stop him

I laughed my ass off when Harry was under the effect of the Felix Felicis xD

*goes to check book* still sounds like deathly hallows...

 

:edit:

that was the best part of the whole movie... :D

C'mon, don't you guys remember? It's not much of a battle, but McGonagall makes a spell in order to stop him and he fights back!

I just skimmed through the chapters after Dumbledore is

killed :bigcry:

and all I see is Mcgonagall fighting a couple death-eaters. But I do remember near the end of Deathly Hallows where Mcgonagall gets in a fight with Snape on the stairs before he runs off and flies from the ramparts...

:thinking: damn am i wrong? *checks the book*

Ok i was wrong :P It's in the Deathly Hallows, my bad. So let me rephrase this...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WHERE DA FUCK IS THE FINAL BATTLE, BITCHES??!

:P

 

 

 

daaaaaaaaamn, Cormac is HAWT!