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SATURDAY PM/SUNDAY AM: Warner Bros' Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince opened with made $51.8M Wednesday, $21.9M Thursday, $26.8 million Friday and $29M Saturday from 4,275 theaters. With Sunday's aggressive estimate of $23.2M (too aggressive?), that's a $79.5M three-day weekend and a $159.7M first-five-day total. 
"Harry Potter 6 won't get close to Transformers 2," a rival studio emailed me tonight. "And it's getting farther behind TF2 every day." (2007's Harry Potter And The Order of the Phoenix finished with a $77M weekend/$140M first five days.) Box office total was $396.7 million including foreign for the strongest Harry Potter franchise start ever.
On Wednesday, HP6 broke the worldwide box office record for opening day with more than $104 million by combining the domestic gross of $58.18M and the international totals of $45.85M. Unlike TF2, HP6 with a PG rating is selling more discounted kiddie tickets. And it had virtually no biz from higher priced IMAX theaters: just 3 venues compared to TF2's 169. When Warner Bros delayed the latest pic in the 8-year-old Harry Potter franchise from last November, the studio could book only three IMAX theaters day and date since the rest are committed to Transformers 2 for a one-month exclusive run. And the film based on JK Rowling’s books still has many countries, as well as many Imax locations in North America (nationwide July 29th), to open.
Meanwhile, last week's #1 movie in North America, Sacha Baron Cohen's mockumentary Bruno, imploded this weekend in 2,759 venues -- down a staggering -80% for just $2.8M Friday and -66% for $3M Saturday to finish in 5th place. And only a $8M weekend and new cume of $49.2M. "When you know it's going to be bad , it's always a little worse," a rival studio exec snarked. Despite omnipresent marketing and huge awareness, Bruno still had problems that the distributing studio couldn't overcome. The mockumentary's graphic depiction of male genitalia front and back, its last-minute editing to tone down the content for an "R" rating, the controversy over Sacha's depiction of homosexuals and heterosexuals, may have all contributed to the film's difficulty at the box office its 2nd weekend when the watercooler effect kicked in. It was clear from last weekend's exit polling scores that audiences were unhappy with what they saw on screen. So Universal's summer losing streak keeps going on and on...
Fox's Ice Age 3-D: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs was an easy #2 with $5.4M Friday and $7M Saturday from 3,817 dates for another $17.7M weekend and $152M cume. Paramount's Transformers 2: Revenge Of The Fallen came in 3rd with $4.5M Friday and $5.4M Saturday from 3,857 runs for a $13.7M weekend on its way to a $363.8M domestic cume. And Disney's The Proposal was #4 with $2.7M Friday and $3.3M Saturday for a projected $8.3M weekend and $128.1M cume. Why? Sneaks of Ugly Truth that sold out everywhere and were mostly coupled with The Proposal.
Expectedly, this will be a big down weekend of $155M -- -40% -- because HP6 opened on a Wednesday, and 2008's The Dark Knight alone grossed $158M. Total weekend box office last year was $255M.
FRIDAY AM: Warner Bros says Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince added $21.9 million Thursday. The PG pic's two-day total is now $80.1M.
THURSDAY PM: Warner Bros announced today that its Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince has broken the worldwide box office record for opening day with more than $104 million by combining the domestic gross of $58.18 million and the international total of $45.85 million. And the PG film based on JK Rowling’s books still has many countries, as well as many Imax locations in North America (nationwide July 29th), to open. But in its first round of day and date territories, HP6 posted the Netherland's best opening ever, the UK's 3rd highest, Italy's 2nd biggest, and Australia's 3rd largest.
THURSDAY AM: Warner Bros' Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince opened Wednesday with a total of $58.4 million from a huge release into 4,275 theaters, the 4th biggest single-day gross ever and the second biggest single-day Wednesday gross in box office history. It included a record-breaking $22.8M in post-midnight shows on 3,003 screens. But that's short of the $62M Wednesday opening grosses made by Transformers 2: Revenge Of The Fallen in June. Of course, there are also mitigating factors. With a PG rating, HP6 is selling more discounted kiddie tickets. And it had virtually no biz from higher priced IMAX theaters: just 3 venues compared to TF2's 169. When Warner Bros delayed the latest pic in the 8-year-old Harry Potter franchise from last November, the studio could book only three IMAX theaters day and date since the rest are committed to Transformers 2 for a one-month exclusive run.
WEDNESDAY AM: First, Transformers 2: Revenge Of The Fallen broke the Wednesday post-midnight record with $16 million in June. Now Warner Bros' 6th film of the Harry Potter shatters that record and more, beating the $18M all-time post-midnight record set by the studio's own The Dark Knight. Meanwhile, Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince not only opened with $22.2 million in 12:01 AM Wednesday shows but also bested by a big margin the $12M in post-midnight dates that its predecessor Harry Potter And The Order of the Phoenix debuted in 2007. (That HP5 went on to gross $139.7M over its first 5 days.) My box office gurus predict that, this time around, HP6 could haul in as much as $200M from its gigantic release into 4,275 North American theaters for its first 5 days -- despite all those half-price kiddie tickets -- and at least a $100M 3-day weekend.
Look, no reason to be coy. This latest Harry Potter, especially because it's PG, is gonna make a mint. And it's all the more impressive because Warner Bros, when they delayed the pic from last November, could book only three IMAX theaters day and date since the rest are committed to Transformers 2 for at least another week or two. Meanwhile, WB spent $250M to make the film and another $155M to market and distribute it around the globe. But it will take the pic this week to debut in all its international territories. What amazes me about the Harry Potter franchise is that it's better than it has to be. Look how the Spider-Man and Pirates Of The Caribbean franchises descended into mediocrity (or worse) after an auspicious start. Not since Lord Of The Rings has a franchise been this fresh and original and true to its books.
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Something tells me this one is gonna be HUGE!!! Bigger than Transformer 2..
Toldja! This one is gonna be huge
With 20M post-midnite show plus a full day play-date tomorrow, it sure will beat Trans2 60.1M Wed take and possibly Dark Knight’s record of biggest single day take.
Here’s hoping!!!
Ya think?
I’m gonna go crazy and say this will beat Dark Knight’s opening. I hope it does too and I hope this gets one of those extra five best pic noms. GO HARRY!
All those “half price” tickets??? I don’t know what theatrers you go to, but there’s no such thing as a half-price ticket anymore. The matinees around here (DC area) are only $1-$2 less than the evening prices. Before 6 PM you can go for the bargain price of $8.00 or $8.50 (depending on the theater) instead of $10.00 or $10.50.
So audiences are still interested in stories with interesting characters and a plot after all! Who knew?
This will be big but it won’t beat The Dark Knight’s record for first day gross or first 5 day gross.
I would watch this but I’ve only seen the first movie then lost interest. The storyline looks more interesting than Transformers.
Transformers II will make anywhere between $388-412M. I’m betting 400 will be its final tally. And 888 will be its worldwide tally.
But the new Potter is quite difficult to calculate because of “all those half-price kiddie tickets.”
Would it have reached 200 in its first 5 days if all the tickets were the same regular price? Could it reach it despite?
None of the Potters made more than 300, except for the first one, of course. Why is this one suddenly so super-duper popular? It’s #6 and there are 2 more still on the way.
No matter, the whole series has been impressive in terms of B.O. any way you look at it.
In NYC, tickets are as high as $12.5, except at the Magic Johnson theatre where a regular ticket costs 11.
At Loews/AMC, tickets are $6 during weekends and holidays but only before noon.
And child and senior citizen tickets are $3 less than a regular adult ticket.
Stunning. All midnight shows in NYC were virtually sold out. Would not be surprised if it beats TDK’s records.
I think that most of this was just rabid Harry Potter fans who had been waiting 2 years for this next instalment. It will probably be extremely front loaded and Dark Knight’s 5 day record should be fine.
Read that and Weep ye who worship that TF2 drek. AND it’s actually a FANTASTIC MOVIE… meaning it won’t fall NEARLY as far as TF2 did, because people will actually RECOMMEND it! Was at the Chinese Midnight show, and people loved it!
It’s amazing how a franchise with two stinkers to start off with, could reinvent itself to be remarkable cinema.
Oh, and what was that, Critics gave it a 92% at Rotten Tomatoes? Huh! who’dathunkit!
Odds are against it breaking any of Dark Knight’s records. Dark Knight was a “freak” of box office numbers. HP6 will probably do 55-60 for today, then around 115 for the weekend, and come near a 195-200 million 5 day. As is true of most sequels or “sixquels” it will be very top-heavy.
Who didn’t see this one coming? ‘Half-Blood Prince’ was the most popular book and this film has had buzz since they pushed its release date back.
The big thing will be whether or not it has any legs. The reviews are great but word-of-mouth among the diehards rings of disappointment and important details from the book left out.
This film also will not have the level of repeat business TDK had. Honestly… it was kind of boring… really good and interesting and well acted and shot etc. But not a lot of action (even less than in the book) for a summer flick.
I have never watched a Harry Potter movie. I have never read a Harry Potter novel, (but i am all for anything that gets kids reading books). This franchise looks good. I just never got into it that’s all.
Having said that, i hope this movie destroys the crapfest that was/is Tranformers 2! I am happy to hear about these numbers.
great flick – deserves every cent – nothing like Transformers 2
Half price exists. I just watched this afernoon for $3.75 at my local theater. So, there are still some that do the midday discount
The audience loyalty to this series is incredible. WB has done a good job at keeping the quality level fairly high for these films. I went to the midnight show last night. It was crazy. Unlike any midnight opening I have ever been to. And I go to a LOT of midnights. The lines were outrageously long. People were camped out in line all day. Doesn’t surprise me at all that it broke the midnight record.
Just saw it. FANTASTIC !!!!!
I saw it…….will see it again
I would not be surprised if it got 200 Million in one weekend or if it beats the dark knight
same thing where I live Ticket Buyer — July 15, 2009 @ 9:17 am
This movie will NOT have legs if potential viewers speak with people who have seen it. Our theatre was packed, but most people leaving were heard agreeing that it is by far the worst installment. It was extremely disappointing on so many levels. I highly recommend waiting for the DVD release. However, I am sure the hard core fans will want the big screen experience, although it is wasted.
Not bad for a winesome teen romance movie with a little bit of magic thrown in. It will be interesting to see how all those little boys react to the film. Sure, the little “twilight” loving girls will love the film, however other demos may be a different story.
WOM is very mixed on twitter, CINEMASCORE and Yahoo movie reviews: only a B+ on Yahoo, whereas ‘Star Trek’/”UP” are sitting with A’s. The EXTREME focus on teenie romance at the expense of the action and the ACTUAL story of “the half blood price” will adversely affect the legs of this film.
Lets face it, only little girls love teenie romances, everyone else just groans (I even heard a few a my screening).
“Not since Lord Of The Rings has a franchise been this fresh and original and true to its books.”
Isn’t that statement completely contradictory? It’s either original, or it’s faithful to the books…it can’t really be both (as part 3 demonstrated).
I have no time for these movies. I gave up on the books about half way in when I became convinced that the author was gonna wimp out and let Harry live.
It’s “good” storytelling to have an epic battle between good and evil where NONE of the main characters die? Please. Oh, well they killed off the Morris the Explainer character and the two Step’n'fetch style kids…big deal.
And where are the production values? Del Toro’s Hellboy 2 looked 8x as good as any potter film and he did that for 70 million. Why are these films so damn expensive?
I will say though, I did sorta like how part 5 turned into a 200 million dollar remake of Phantasm in the last 20 minutes.
Just saw it today. This is one of the best film series ever without question. It’s frightening to think what form this all would have taken in the wrong hands (i.e. virtually with anyone or at anyplace else in town).
Nikki the difference between Harry Potter and indeed Lord of the Rings from say the Spider Man and Pirates movies is the fact that they are literary adaptations and so can use a (rather thick) book as the backbone to draw their scripts. Those other franchises have been made up as they go on. Spider Man draws from many comics, and Pirates from it’s theme park ride! It’s no surprise that the original films are stronger than the sequels. All that being said… the books the adaptations have been drawn from actually have to be pretty good too or you can still end up with a mess.
“What amazes me about the Harry Potter franchise is that it’s better than it has to be.”
As an enormous Harry Potter geek, I want to offer up the idea that it’s NOT brtter than it has to be. They HAVE to be faithful, at least in the overall characters and arcs, because if they were to drop the ball on any one of the films the fans would be so furious we wouldn’t stand for more. What is remarkable is that they have managed to condense some very long books into respectable films without either being too slavish (except perhaps for the first two) or changing too much.
This is also notable because, due to IMAX’s pre-existing exclusivity deal with Paramount for Transformers, the midnight returns do not include IMAX runs, which will all open in two weeks (except for one screen each in NY/LA/Chicago.) The Dark Knight’s midnight grosses included sellouts from several IMAX theaters with their higher ticket prices, and yet Harry was able to dethrone it without that manner of aid.
These movies are all the same! The only thing added to the arc is Harry feigning teenage angst and Ron & Hermione flirting. We’ve known since the first film that Harry was destined to be better than anyone at waving a twig and spouting gibberish. There hasn’t been many wrinkles thrown in since. He’s a tedious character and these films are hollow cgi reels that utterly waste all of the esteemed talent from across the pond. All this series has done is drive into the ground the same tired fantasy formula that LOTR was somehow consecrated for.
My god Nikki, why did you have to go on vacation when Harry Potter’s out. I’m dying for some early Wednesday estimates
I read somewhere that late shows arent playing well and that it won’t even beat Transformers2 opening day! That’ll be so disappointing. I hope your numbers prove them wrong! (and soon!)
Why didnt Warner Bros wait until they could get the IMAX screens — there are some key scenes in 3D — perhaps they were hoping for repeat viewers? I know I won’t be watching it until it’s playing in IMAX in my area.
And isn’t it true that Warners pushed the Fall opening so it wouldn’t coincide with the Broadway run of EQUUS, which features a riveting performance by Radcliffe, including an extended (no pun intended) full frontal nude scene?
@HunderD – Clearly you need to actually FINISH READING THE BOOKS, before you can make such judgments about the characters dying.
@Ethel – Was EVERYONE in the theater disappointed or just you? Cause I had a completely different experience. Don’t assume your opinions are everyones.
….Can not believe HP has been reduced to a teenage chick flick….It was about teenage snogging and not alot else….where exactly was the Half Blood Prince, did I miss him, he was hardly in it at all???….Left out at the expense of teenage love….dull.
@heresjohnny
Before you get snarky with fellow posters, learn how to THOROUGHLY read posts. I wrote “most” not “everyone”. And for the record, there was a local university doing a survey on the way out and 234 out of 250 from the theatre I attended marked “disappointed” and ranked it last of the installments. That would qualify as “most”.
Sheesh Nikki, are you writing Warner’s press releases, lol?
“Look how the Spider-Man and Pirates Of The Caribbean franchises descended into mediocrity (or worse) after an auspicious start.”
So you’re talking about 1 installment of SPIDER-MAN that “descended into mediocrity”, right? Because the second film was one of the best sequels ever made.
One could say GOBLET OF FIRE was pretty mediocre…wasn’t much better than SPIDEY 3 to be honest. And ORDER OF THE PHOENIX was forgettable as well.
“Not since Lord Of The Rings has a franchise been this fresh and original and true to its books. ”
Huh? How can you be “fresh and original” and yet “true to its books”? Translating a book faithfully doesn’t exactly make you “fresh.”
Comic books have at least, 40 years or so of stories, plotlines, and proven concepts that work. In the case of Superman, make that more than 70 years of the same. It takes a lot to screw up proven material, like Spider-Man or Superman. By contrast, the Potter books are relatively recent, and there’s far less of winning storylines, characterizations, and plot lines to choose from.
I don’t know if a mostly female-girl oriented movie like the Potter series has as much pull as Transformers or the comic book movies. Maybe. There’s a lot of competition for the female and teen/tween female market. Guys have relatively little so flock to the comic book movies.
200M in 5 days is Not Possible … 180M in 5 Days maybe …
I’m waiting for HP7 when Harry becomes an instructor @ hogwarts. Big money starts in 3 years…..
Don’t say you didn’t know?
Adaptations are always difficult – kudos to Warner for staying so close to what the HP fandom loves. When that happens, money follows…
Wow! Didn’t know the studios are tracking the worldwide box office record for opening day
Emm..anyone knows who was the previous record holder? I assumed the usual suspects with the likes of Spidey, Pirates..Carribean or maybe Shrek!
Anyone with the info?
I saw it in 35MM and will since it again in Imax 3D. Was a great film and am very happy they are having this much success. Warner Brothers though delaying the film and annoying many fans does nurture and promote this series very well (and why not it is a cash cow for them). I was surprised at the parts that were left out but also pleaseed about how it was done.
The official reason why they pushed it was because WB did not have anything to have this summer that would be huge (and they didn’t need to have any more success last year with the record breaking Dark Knight helping them). People who were upset about this should realize that the next one will come sooner then — next november.
The movie was very good but not great. (Spoiler warning). The only really thrilling moment was when Dumbledore circled the lake with fire.
None of these directors get the wonder of fantasy, because they don’t believe truly believe it’s legit, hence the “romance” focus.
This was the closest since Cuaron’s (#3) to have real mood. Lots of horror movie references incorporated, which while nice, didn’t capture the oppressiveness and fear of the novels.
Biggest disappointment was lack of fight between the Death-Eaters and Team Harry after Dumbledore’s death. I assume it was because the makers of the film felt it would detract from the emotional impact of Dumbledore’s immediate death to have everyone chasing around having a magical fight. (The magical fights are the biggest disappointments of the whole movie series).
A very good movie, but more dramatic than fantastic.
My wife is a middle school English teacher and she was enthralled with the film. I have not read any of the books or have seen any of the movies and I was thoroughly lost and confused with the plot. However, the visual effects were quite impressive and I could enjoy the film on that level.
BTW, we saw it Thursday at an 1130am matinee in Las Vegas, and the theater was about 75% full with a capacity of about 300. Lots of kids, but not as many as you would think.
Beautiful, so it won’t be beating Transformers 5-day tally after all.
Oh Harry, still premature I see. 22 mil midnight and nothing to show for it.
Isn’t this an unfair comparison to Transformers 2 — first of all this is the first sequel of Transformers and more importantly — it’s not getting the added benefit of the IMAX screens — I know I won’t be watching it until it comes to IMAX in my area. So what if it doesn’t beat transformers — it’s still doing really really well and T2 is so much better than the first one.
Wow, it didn’t beat Tardfest 2’s 5-day gross. It MUST be a total dud!
Just some interesting “perception versus reality” thoughts on the box office. Has anyone noticed that ICE AGE 3 is now the number 2 movie of the year in worldwide box office? It’s about to cross 500 million and has plenty more to come! This was pretty much on track to happen last week when according to every media outlet BRUNO was somehow taking over the world. I didn’t see Scrat or Manny on the cover of magazines. For all the crap people like dish out on 20th Century Fox, they are having a pretty good year.
Another thing that went unnoticed and considering all of UNIVERSAL’s flops this year is interesting. MUMMY: TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR grossed over 400 million dollars worldwide last year. Just for perspective. that would put it at #4 on this year’s chart and over 50 million dollars more than Universal’s top grosser (worldwide) of the year, FAST AND FURIOUS. Granted, the year isn’t over, but I find it interesting that the film was pretty much dismissed as a “dusty old franchise” and yet it had more box office muscle than a lot of the perceived smash hits being released this year. Case and point, STAR TREK. I loved it, and am not knocking it, but that dusty Mummy franchise outgrossed the hip, super cool new sensation TREK by millions too. There may be a bit more bank in the weeks ahead for Trek, but again, perception and reality tend to be two very different things. Time to call in Brendan Frasier again Universal.
Oh, and yes, no matter how they spin it, this opening gross for HARRY is very impressive.
So happy that Bruno Imploded but was holding Harry Potter would have done 100 million over the weekend it was a great movie my second fav.
Thank you again America for rejecting Bruno.
81% drop and they spent a ton promoting it.
This “reality show movie” is another bad trend which will deprive us of truly funny movies like The Hangover and Superbad. Bye bye Bruno.
Note to Sacha: I know you’re thinking that you should do a racial move next where you turn black– don’t do it.
Also Half Blood Prince was good but they are taking no chances with the franchise. WB pulled it and it lost some momentum in the past year. they might be screwed.
“It’s faltering quickly.”
Yeah, I’m sure Warner Brothers is trembling and weeping.
“Beautiful, so it won’t be beating Transformers 5-day tally after all. Oh Harry, still premature I see. 22 mil midnight and nothing to show for it.”
Since when is “Transformers 2″ having good legs? With each passing week, the earnings drop by 50% or more. I wouldn’t be surprised if that drops out of the Top 10 by August.
And it’s outdoing the previous movie by a good margin ($80 mil v. $77 mil, $58.2 mil v. $44 mil). The fact that HP6 is doing as well as its predecessors show the longevity holds as opposed to Michael Bay films that open big, earn big numbers in the opening 5 days and quickly shrink out of sight once word-of-mouth spreads.
i dont give a crap about these waste of times…
however i wanted to congrat u Ms Finke on your FRONT page NYTimes article
bravo
golf claps
xox
patty cake
It’d be interesting to see if this movie ends up making more than transformers 2 in the long run. I know TONS of people waiting to see it on the IMAX, so that will probably breathe more life into it as well. And, I wonder what the actual ticket count is. If Nikki’s right, I bet they’ve probably sold about the same amount, so TF6 has an unfair market buy percentage. HP6 will continue to have legs. People won’t even be talking about Transformers 2 a year from now, other than to say what a waste of their money it was, or snarky comparisons to other bad films. Harry Potter will continue to be seen and talked about, and read, for ages to come.
HP6 may be faultering, but at $20 million more on opening 5day than HP5, I’m going to go out on a limb and say it will have very long legs for a non-animation film. It ain’t over, till it’s over….
Hey JNOW your once again sounding like the classic
TF2 hater and it appears that your actaully trying
to make an argument for HP6 vs. TF2. What argument
are you trying to make exactly? It didnt break the
opening wednsday record 0f 62mil held by TF2, studio
estimates suggest it will not even come close to TF2
200mil 5-day haul. When you speak of FALLING…cant
remember the last time a movie fell hard into 400mil
which is exactly the territory TF2 is headed. How
many movies you know make it on that list? I guess
400mil isnt a success any more these days. If you
dont make more money than TDK youve faied…so i
supppose the other 48 movies in the top 50 all-time
they failed to get the job done. Face it people TF2 is
a franchise thats on top of the world right now. It is
the ‘STAR WARS’ of our present day and i cant wait for
the third…forget harry potter.
Cohen better hope he has more stamina on his wedding night than Bruno has shown. Otherwise, Isla’s gonna be pissed. Seriously, with all of the free publicity this film generated, there is no excuse for Bruno to not be sailing past $100 million domestically.
Dig this, I found a tick stub from 1993 ‘Groundhog’s Day’ and it was $3.00. Not a word of it a lie.
Adix, you nailed it. Why the relentless hateful rants against a movie loved by millions of people around the world. It’s been a tour de force at the box office both domestically and internationally. It’s a flat out fun movie. And the fun comes at you from many directions; the action sequences, the hilarious interaction between the parents, the silly college roommate, the phenomenal CGI, etc.
Nikki……I agree with most of your reasoning for Bruno imploding……..but ts “last-minute editing to tone down the content for an “R” rating” can’t be one of the reasons. Are you saying that it was too tame??
adix,
transformers is a very profitable series, the first one made 700mil and this one is around 750mil right now, but theres no way it makes more than harry, the worst harry potter film made 780mil and the best did 960mil, transformers might win just in north america, but its a much different story worldwide. harry potter films are much more profitable worldwide compared to transformers
I hate to say this but if the product is a flawed nitch piece then all of the press in the world will not push anything to the level that you think Bruno should be at.
Adix –
“Face it people TF2 is a franchise thats on top of the world right now. It is the ‘STAR WARS’ of our present day and i cant wait for the third…forget harry potter.”
That is a brilliant assessment and shows a lot of research into both franchises and their fanbases. I can see you took the rabid, near fanatical masses of children and adults that make up the Harry Potter audience and completely discarded them while embracing the summer “anything that has lots of explosions and shiny CGI thrust in front while story and continuity is tossed aside” crowd as benchmarks of what makes a true classic series of films.
Which do you think will be more valuable and therefore sell more when all is said and done – The Transformers Box Set or the Complete Harry Potter?
Decent troll, but too easy to break apart and cast aside.
I believe it failed to go rector after day one because they left out major portions, if not chapters from the book. I know my sons (17) (15) were talking about it and they (fans) totally tore it apart. I’m surprised since the series is SO successful, why didn’t Warners stay true to the story and make two films. That way the fans of the book would have been happy and that excitement would have spread like wildfire. Personally, I enjoyed it but I thought it was slow in parts and felt something was missing. I later find out from my kids – a lot was missing.
The fact that people consider Bruno a failure is hilarious. The film was in profit from day one, and Universal’s laughing all the way to the bank.
Regarding Rupert P’s comment about MUMMY 3: I recall an interview with the director in which he stated that he was told even before #3 began production that #4 was a go; with presales based on the franchise’s track record, DRAGON EMPEROR was a GUARANTEED money maker- the only question was how much (even if it bombed, #4 could be turned into a low budget DVD original and still make some nice change for Uni). It’s a little reminder that, for all the hype about “opening weekends” and “breaking records”, the real backbone of this business is in how you market the product, and what your profit margin is…
The dismissive comments from rival studio add nothing to this posting. In fact, they detract. It’s also not a very meaningful comparison between HP and Trans2. Just the facts, please.
Natricey-
I never said TF2 would make more than HP6 in its final
run but was simply pointing out the fact that it
would not come close to touching TF2 records which it
will not. HP6 probably will make more worldwide than
TF2 and if it does.,good for it. I dont care if it does
i have never seen a harry potter movie and dont plan
on it.
JON-
Yes i did say it,TF2 the ‘STAR WARS’ of our time and
i meant it. Its new, fresh, ground-breaking in visual
achievement and is truly a fun family experience for
all to enjoy. Guys dont just want to see it but girls,
little kids, the middleaged. The polls are already out
if you dont believe me. Harry potter is a kids movie
so obviously it does very well as it should but TF
targets so many groups which truly makes it a movie
‘EVENT’ every time it comes. If you thought you saw
craze, mayhem, and histeria for TF2.,just wait for
TF3. You aint seen nothing yet. Personally i think 6
movies for a franchise is way to many and i dont care
how many books there were, thats too much. I personally
feel that a movie trilogy for a franchise offers the
most value. Who wants to see 6 movies of something. I
can tell you right now im not interested in 6 TF’s. I
think 3 is enough and rest assured and you can bet
your bottom dollar on it TF3 will begin as dramatic
and climacticly as it ended. It will cap this trilogy
saga off with as much craze and histeria as it began
with.
Mike bay is a evil genius, a mad scientist rabid at
the mouth to provide the ultimate movie going experince
to all fulfilling childhood vision of what cybertron
wars between autobots and decepticons looks like. Im
a fan of this movement and i challenge Mike bay to
push his creative synapsis to the next level. I dare
him to out do himself. All you out there.,fans, haters,
neutralist, casual..let your voices be heard and
challenge him for creative perfection so we can prepare
for a summer movie event the likes of which none of us
have ever seen and may never see again.
Transformers 2 and Harry Potter series aren’t even close to being the Star Wars for this generation. What a lame comparison.
And Bruno failed at every level to have cultural significance.
Mileshigh-
Number one i cant even believe you just mentioned
Transformers and Harry potter in the same sentence…
together like the two of them are some tag team tandem
lol.
Second thing i said Transformers is the ‘STAR WARS’ of
our time not Harry potter. Read the words in front of
you man, use your vowels.
BRUNO is tanking at the box office not because of frontal nudity or its offensive (supposedly) nature. Borat was loaded with that stuff, and look how well it did.
BRUNO is tanking because of the character Bruno, the core of the film. You could believe Borat was a fish out of water, he was clueless, a simple peasant who just didn’t get it, and thus suspend your disbelief and let the satire take over. It’s hard to do that with Bruno. So hyper-attuned to celebrity culture, it’s hard to believe that he would think that converting to a straight man would bring him the attention he craved. Anyone who supposedly was a huge success in the fashion culture — which requires a kind of highly competitive, visual, trend-sensitive, shrewd intelligence — could not suddenly become so out of touch and clueless, and conclude: hey, I need to become straight to be a hit. That conceit worked well for the storytellers — it gave them some where to go — but it violated the truth of the material (and character) they had to deal with.
So, while the character Bruno worked well for the short form, TV, where you essentially just need to give a snap shot of him and get some laughs, when you try to put him in the longer form, which requires you develop a credible story and motivation, you can’t violate the truth of your own creation. The audience won’t take that leap of faith and immerse themselves in the fictive world if you do.
I think Potter will drop off quite a bit in coming weeks. I’ve heard a lot of grumbling from fans about the important things cut from the movie thus causing them to say they won’t see it a second and third time.
There is no ‘Star Wars’ for this generation. The only ‘Star Wars’ for any generation was ‘Star Wars’ along with its two sequels. Not even the prequels can be counted, it was it’s own thing and wasn’t an adaption but was of its own originality at a specific time and place. As similiar as the economy might feel like the late 70s it is not the late 70s and given the state of the industry I doubt you’ll have a new filmmaker come up anything like that.
Everything is too P.C. now, the movie inudstry people are all supposed to think alike, about war and about politics, there’s little room for a disenting voice. 9/11 proved that, there was no condemnation of the attack in films, in fact there was excuse. There was no excuse nor condemnation of what happened to that Dutch filmmaker by those 10 or so people who killed him and for that the American film industry looks weak and only speaks about what they want. From this person who remembers the original Trilogy in his youth, it is sad what the world has become and had the movie industry can’t reflect that because it does not wish too.