But, to go back to the original topic, which is actually about movies, I love box office mojo. Actually, the site is http://boxofficemojo.com, and it's awesome. I brought it up, because a while ago in one of my posts, I wrote about how I thought Harry Potter 7.2 was going to absolutely destroy the box office. Well, I was right! Let's take a look, shall we?
Working its final movie mojo, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 soared into the record books with the highest-grossing opening weekend ever. The series finale drew an estimated $168.55 million on around 11,000 screens at 4,375 locations, dethroning The Dark Knight's $158.4 million.
Awww yeah. Was I right, or was I right? But, really, that's not a true accomplishment, me predicting that accurately. Anyone in the world could have done that, and I'm sure many others did. I DO want to point out a few things, however. First of all, that estimated amount is ridiculously inflated, thanks to 3D ticket prices. The Dark Knight had that issue as well, but not nearly to this extent; TDK came out in 2008, and now, three years later, 3D is (unfortunately) super prevalent in theatres. This is evident later on in that same article:
Deathly Hallows Part 2 marked Harry Potter's first foray into 3D, and it made a splash with the broadest 3D launch ever (3,100-plus locations, including 274 in IMAX). [...] 3D accounted for 43 percent of the gross, which was a lower share than Transformers: Dark of the Moon's 60 percent at the same point but in the ballpark of most of this summer's other big movies.43%?! That's insane. Yes, it was a lower share than TF3, but....okay, let's be honest here, going to see gigantic robots smash each other to pieces while the backdrop is explosion after explosion is FAR more visually appealing than a teenage wizard running around looking pensively into the camera. I said the special effects for HP 7.2 were sweet, and they were....that's not saying much, however, as TF3 completely blew it out of the water. Hell, even Green Lantern blew it out of the water, and that movie was garbage. Still, though, 3D sales are making up more and more of the gross of movies these days, which sucks, because 3D itself sucks. It makes the movie darker, and for movies like HP 7.2 that already have a dark (visually) setting, it just makes it look crappy. For movies with lots of CRAZY effects, it looks cool...but, not HP 7.2. Indeed, Avatar (by James Cameron), that movie was good to see in 3D, and that's why it made as much money as it did...BECAUSE of the 3D.
Funnily enough, HP 7.2 had one of "the steepest Friday-to-Saturday drop on record for a non-holiday first weekend, falling 53 percent to an estimated $42.85 million". While that's not anything to really laugh at, since that's still an obscene amount of money, it's still apparent that the movie does not have much staying power. I think it'll continue to rake in money for the next few weeks to a month (i.e. the rest of July and most of August), but then it'll fade away. By then, however, I'm sure it'll have made a ridiculous amount of money, as the trend for HP movies seems to be that while it fades pretty fast domestically, worldwide it tends to do pretty well. The one thing that might dent the sales, though, is Captain America. While that is one movie I cannot wait to see (going to see it at midnight!!), I also can't help but think that the last Marvel movie to be released before the Avengers comes out next May is going to also make a killing at the box office. Not on the same level as HP 7.2, but definitely pretty darn good. It's not going to do well overseas, though....while they've been marketing it as 'The First Avenger', which is smart, it's still a movie about a guy called Captain AMERICA. Like it or not, that's not going to resonate with a lot of people outside of North America (heck, it might not resonate with people in Canada)....the tagline is 'Heroes are made in America' for crying out loud. But, hell, I'm going to see it, and it's going to be awesome.
One thing that makes me feel better about the absolutely ridiculous amount of money that the HP franchise has made is this:
As a franchise, Harry Potter has now grossed $2.177 billion, and it's on the brink of eclipsing Star Wars' $2.218 billion to become the top-grossing franchise in history. In terms of estimated attendance, though, the eight Potter movies have had 57 percent of the impact of the seven Star Wars movies. Star Wars even wins on this front when just its initial releases are counted.HaHA! Suck on THAT, Harry Potter! Even if HP does surpass Star Wars as the highest grossing franchise in history, it's still not accounting for inflation, at which point I think nothing can catch Star Wars. Even without inflation, SW is ahead because of the aforementioned 3D prices. For the record, thanks again to boxofficemojo.com, adjusted for inflation, here is what Star Wars would have made today:
Star Wars: A New Hope: $1,400,020,000
Empire Strikes Back: $771,699,800
Return of the Jedi: $739,307,000
I'm not even going to count the prequels, even though they too made an ungodly amount of $$. That's WITHOUT 3D prices...awww yeah. I mean, yes, Harry Potter made its killing in the book industry, where it is almost without peer (does the Bible count? I dunno.), and if you were to add the sales from all the books and what not to the movies, it would definitely climb significantly. But, I can say that for Star Wars as well, which also has a popular TV show + another one in the works; not to mention the fact that Star Wars spawned ILM [Industrial Light and Magic], as well as Skywalker Sound, two massive companies that changed the way movies today are made, Harry Potter included. My favourite movies of all time are also more popular than Harry Potter. Star Wars also had to compete against the movies of the 70s and 80s for attention....an era that saw Back to the Future, Indiana Jones, ET, Jaws, Diehard, The Godfather, Ghostbusters, and many other movies which are considered to be amongst the best of ALL TIME. You can't really say the same thing for HP, other than a few notable cases such as TDK or Avatar. According to that last block quote, if you look at the amount of people who attended the original SW movies, HP (as a series) has had just 57% of that number attend their movies. So, yup. Star Wars > Harry Potter, it's a verifiable fact. You know what else I don't understand? The 'omg, my childhood is ending' crap. People who say that astound me, really, it's a little ridiculous. I won't get too much into that now, but....if you're one of those people, you should be ashamed. I mean, really. It's a movie. I hope you weren't one of those annoying people who were ruining the movie for me with your crying. I paid money to see that film too, I don't need your sobbing screwing it up!
But, I digress. There was an extensive list of movies I wanted to see this summer: X-Men: First Class, Green Lantern, Thor, Pirates of the Caribbean 4, Transformers 3, HP 7.2, Captain America, and Cowboys and Aliens. Since then, I have added Horrible Bosses, Kung Fu Panda 2...well, that's it, really. Of all of those movies, I have seen them all except for Captain America (which I will strike off the list come Thursday), and Cowboys and Aliens, which comes out late July. I can't believe I'm getting all these movies in; normally I wait a really long time to see all the ones I want to see during the summer. Ah well, awesome for me....and for you, because then I get to write a blog post about it =P In any case, that's all for now. Back to work!
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