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UPDATE: Latest Records Indicate that Harry Potter Has Shattered the New Moon Record

July 14, 2011

What a difference a few hours makes! After reporting earlier that New Moon would hold onto it’s record of midnight release sales, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 roared in with a last minute surge! Fandango has just issued the following press release:

“Tonight’s the night, as millions of moviegoers will band together to bid a fond, final farewell to the beloved characters of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.”

Fandango has sold more midnight and early morning show tickets for “Part 2″‘ than it has for the late night openings of any other movie (including “The Dark Knight” and “New Moon”).

More than 6,000 of  tonight’s midnight shows are sold out in advance on Fandango, and theater owners are scrambling to post additional showtimes (many at 3:00 a.m.). “Part 2” currently represents 93% of today’s total ticket sales.

Fandango’s “Harry Potter” experts will be available in New York and Los Angeles for live commentary outside the theaters, where film fans are likely to dress up for the magical occasion. According to a Fandango survey of more than 1,000 moviegoers, more than 8% of midnight show ticket-buyers will arrive at the theater in special “Potter” regalia.

“‘Part 2”s midnight show ticket sales have been nothing short of extraordinary,” says Fandango Executive Vice President and General Manager Rick Butler. “In the more than ten years that I’ve been with the company, I’ve never seen so many late night showtimes for a single movie sold out in advance. Thankfully, theater owners are adding new showtimes throughout the night to meet the fan demand.”

To everyone going to the midnight shows tonight enjoy! We’ll be there. Long live Remus Lupin, our first fandom book character crush!

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Latest Totals: Harry Potter Will Not Overtake New Moon, Record Will Stand

July 14, 2011

According to Reuters:

“Though its box office haul will be truly magical, it is unlikely that the bespectacled boy wizard will beat the “Twilight” kids. Still, the final “Harry Potter” film is on track to be the No. 2 advance ticket seller of all time behind “The Twilight Saga: New Moon.”

“A senior IMAX executive told TheWrap that Potter pre-sales were “huge.” The theater company reports that all of their midnight screenings are sold out, with only a few seats still available for its 3 a.m. and 7 a.m. shows.

That said, it does not look like “Deathly Hallows: Part 2” will unseat “New Moon” as the biggest pre-seller. When the “Twilight” sequel opened in November 2009, it had the box office field more or less to itself, whereas “Deathly Hallows: Part 2” will have to compete with tentpole fare such as “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” to claim its crown.

The Harry Potter finale is performing better in its midnight and early screenings, but “New Moon” had stronger Saturday and Sunday pre-sales, according to Fandango.”

See more on Reuters

Keep in mind that these totals are only taking into account pre-sales, not people who will just walk up to the box office.  No one will know for sure until Monday at around 4:00pm when the official tally comes out.

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Summit Executives, Melissa Rosenberg, and Chris Weitz Give Credit To Harry Potter Films

July 14, 2011

Erik Feig(a Summit Executive), Melissa Rosenberg (Twilight Saga screenwriter) and Chris Weitz (the director of The Golden Compass, New Moon and A Better Life) have cited the Harry Potter films as industry inspirations and changers. In the above photo, taken at the A Better Life premiere, Erik Feig is standing to Chris Weitz’s immediate left:

Erik Feig:

‘”There was a sea change with Harry Potter,” says Erik Feig, president of worldwide production at Summit Entertainment, which has made the Twilight movies. “The story has a younger protagonist, but the book series and the movies are greatly enjoyed by older people, too. I devoured the first book and gave it to every grown-up I knew. We saw the same thing with Twilight. We did not ghetto-ize it as a young-adult movie. Nor did they with Harry Potter. They drew all audiences. It was an inspiration to us.”

Chris Weitz:

“The impact of the Potter series has been tremendous in that it has essentially become the idea of a modern franchise,” says director Chris Weitz (Twilight: New Moon; The Golden Compass). “They latched onto something that has its own sequels built in. Now everyone is looking for a literary property that extends enough for them to keep on building.

“It’s led to this speculative bubble in mystical young-adult fiction. Twilight found its own way to hit upon the hunger for the supernatural and a particular time of life. But if you look at the bookshelves now, half of what is coming out in (young-adult) fiction is about a werewolf or a vampire or angels or demons. The other half is about magic and wizardry.”

Melissa Rosenberg:

“The Harry Potter filmmakers and screenwriter Steve Kloves really respected the fans,” says Melissa Rosenberg, who has written the screenplay for each Twilight movie. “When you’re adapting a book series and you have that kind of fan base, you really have to deliver. You can’t just use the books as a jumping-off basis for another story. When I see a Harry Potter movie, I forget what is missing. Because Kloves is taking me and those kids on the same emotional journey as the book does.”

This is really a not to be missed article. Check it out on USA Today.

 

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Harry Potter Finale May Take New Moon and Eclipse Records

July 12, 2011

According to Entertainment Weekly, Part 2 of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows may overtake he box office records set by New Moon:

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows–Part 2 has already collected $25 million domestically from advance ticket sales, according to Variety. The majority of the sales have reportedly been for midnight screenings, giving Deathly Hallows a legitimate shot at beating the $30 million midnight record set last year by The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. The final Harry Potter film will also be aiming its wand at some other box-office milestones, such as the largest opening day (currently The Twilight Saga: New Moon with $72.7 million) and the biggest opening weekend (The Dark Knight with $158.4 million).”

See more on EW

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Twilight and Harry Potter Discussion

August 6, 2009

Last Saturday Laura (Pel) sat down with Melissa Anelli in the New York City Public Library (you know the famous one with the lions in front) to talk about Harry Potter, Twilight, and the fans experience especially as it relates to the Internet.  Melissa is the owner of the Harry Potter fansite, The Leaky Cauldron. She’s also written about her experiences in the Harry Potter fandom called “Harry A History.”

It was a fantastic discussion since Melissa and Laura are fans of both series, and both agreed that it’s not a competition between the two.

Jackie from EdwardCullen.net was on hand to watch the event:

“The highlights of this discussion were many. However, I tried to pick out the ones that I recorded and remembered. I probably will add up more because there were so many, but this is a fair few for now. These are not in any particular order, so enjoy! If anyone was at the discussion and would like to add their thoughts, please e-mail [email protected] and I will add it up!” You can read the rest here.

They were also able to capture on video (before the camera memory died) part of the discussion.

Melissa on reading Twilight while she was on a plane going to visit the set of one of the Harry Potter movies. Interesting tidbit is the person who was next to her asking what the heck she was reading so quickly was Andrew Sims of Mugglenet who now also operates Twilight Source.

Part of the discussion talking about author involvement and more.

Thank you so much to Jackie from Edward Cullen.net for coming!  Also look for the entire discussion to eventually be on a TLC podcast.

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Edward Was Once A Hufflepuff: AKA Why Choose

July 15, 2009

We are sure that the Harry Potter fansites are just about as sick of the Twilight vs. Harry Potter comparisons as we are. They are two great books series, and near as we can figure the only comparisons are this:

  1. *Debut novels by previously unpublished women authors become wild, runaway, sales hits
  2. *People of all generations read the books, not just teens and tweens
  3. *Both allow people to lose themselves in the adventure
  4. *Remus Lupin and Jacob Black are two of the sexiest werewolves ever ( Have we mentioned that Alphie and Pel first met over Remus Lupin obsession?)

So let’s hear it for two great books that have great movie series.  We’ll be seeing Potter this week. Novel Novice even has created some wallpapers and whatnot to celebrate. Check them out.

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Former Castmates Support Robert Pattinson

July 8, 2009

According to the UK entertainment site Digital Spy, both Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) and Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) who were once castmates of Robert Pattinson in the Goblet of Fire movie voiced their support of Rob’s career at a Harry Potter press junket.

Daniel Radcliffe stated, “I won’t pretend we’re best mates or knew each other really well but we really enjoyed working with each other, or at least I enjoyed working with him! He’s doing brilliantly, which is fantastic.”

Tom Felton said, “It’s just great to see someone who has been in Harry Potter have a life after it, and a much bigger one! So I wish him all the success and I will see Twilight soon, I promise!”

Also Jamie Campbell Bower who has a role in the next Potter film was spotted at the Potter premiere last night.

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