Question: Plunging Box Office Reports

[irbohlen at email.unc.edu]

--- In HPFGU-Movie at y..., "Jim Ferer" <jferer at y...> wrote:
> Rodeo Danger Queen:"What do you all make of the plunging box office 
> receipts for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the United 
> States?"

Further down in the report I read, it was stated that such a plunge is actually 
expected after Thanksgiving weekend. HP still beat out Behind Enemy Lines 
to hold on to the number one spot in the US. They said total boxoffice was 
down over last year, too.

I think Warner Bros should be pleased with how well the film is doing. 
However, I truly think the majority audience for it is children [despite the 
existence of this group & others like it!] and how likely are they [speaking of 
the majority again, not those fortunate enough to have HP fanatics for 
parents] to be able to see it more than once at the cinema? So there will not 
be the vast numbers of teenagers with their own $$ and transportation that 
made Titantic such a hit. [This is probably the source of the tv-screen-sized 
rather than widescreen video/DVD idea--the suits think every kid who bought 
the book will want the video, but they're only KIDS, right, so let's just make it 
pan-and-scan...grrrrrrrr]

Maybe they should produce the video & DVD with the same philosophy as 
that used in the UK that produced different "adult" and "child" covers for the 
books--have a simple video version for little kids, and a DVD with all the bells 
& whistles for grownups who care. Just a thought.

I'm really curious about how LOTR will do. I saw the first Burger King tie-in 
ads on tv and was nearly ill. Those of us who have read and re-read these 
books for over 30 years are in a real love-hate relationship with the whole 
project that makes HP4GU nitpicks seem...minor :)

Difficult as it is to believe, we really are lucky that HP has relatively little 
merchandising in comparison to LOTR or Star Wars--I read something like 90 
firms for HP as opposed to over 200 for Star Wars. The Coke advertising is 
relatively unobtrusive and WB even seems to have improved the truly nasty 
artwork they had out last year. Harry Potter seems "everywhere" now, but 
just wait until the next Star Wars comes out.

Ivis the elderly