Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II has surpassedLord of the Rings: Return of the King as the third highest grossing film of all time, worldwide! It has now grossed $1.1339 BILLION! The next highest grossing Potter film is Sorcerer’s Stone at spot 11 with $974.8 Million.
The only films ahead of Deathly Hallows: Part 2 are David Cameron’s Avatar and Titanic, but Titanic is $700 billion ahead, so Potter probably won’t pass them.
The LA Times has posted a new article about the Epilogue for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II. The article included a few promotional photos from the scene, you can view those in the gallery! In the article they interview Daniel Radcliffe, David Yates, and David Heyman as well as quotes from the past where they talked about what they would like to do for the epilogue.
“The thing we didn’t want was for it to be distracting and I think we figured it out,” Radcliffe said. “We did it with prosthetics, in the end, and I’m sure there will be little bits of visual effects for retouching on those moments when we do a close-up… when you have the prosthetic on for a long time, it’s hard to maintain it, that illusion, and with close-ups you need to fix it up. It’s also a challenge to make someone who is 19 or 20 — an age where their face is still changing — and make them a fully grown adult. I think they looked fantastic though and, if I do say so, particularly mine. Mine looked pretty dead on. That’s me in the future I think.”
David Heyman had this to say about re-shooting the scene:
“Rupert looked like he was about 75 years old with the triple chin and the belly, he looked like he had really lived as a lush,” Heyman said. “We knew we needed to rework the makeup. There was another problem, too, shooting at the train station proved quite challenging for some of the younger kids who played the children of Harry, Ron and Hermione. It was really noisy every few minutes a train from Liverpool would pull in on one of the other tracks. We only had our one track closed.”
In a closing statement he said:
“It was something very strange and affecting,” the producer said. “I was really pleased because I thought there was a real tenderness about the last scene, a feeling of closure and the cycles of life. There’s a new beginning and there’s an ending. There are different sorts of adventures for these actors and for all of us. But we made it to the train station together.”
Variety reports that Warner Bros are planning to campaign for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II to get an Academy Award nomination for Best Motion Picture. As fans may know the Harry Potter films have received 9 nominations in the past for technical categories but have never won. According to the article:
Warners will “absolutely, hands-down, across-the-board” push the last installment of “Harry Potter” hoping Academy members will consider a vote for “Deathly Hallows: Part 2” as a wider nod to the entire franchise, a notion that very much helped propel “Return of the King” to Oscar glory.
While the Acad often shuns fantasy and kid fare, Warners believes it has a real shot at a nom given the pic’s emotional weight, capping a franchise that’s delivered more than $7 billion in worldwide B.O. and traced its stars from childhood to young adulthood.
For those of you who are also Lord of the Rings fans you will know that the first two films didn’t receive Oscars but Return of the King was nominated AND won in ELEVEN categories. Hopefully something similar will happen for the Potter films, we all know they deserve it!
Last night Tom Felton appeared on Lopez Tonight to discuss his new film Rise of the Planet of the Apes which comes out this Friday. He also talks a bit about the Potter series. You may watch the interview below:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II has finally crossed the $1 billion dollar mark. It is the first Harry Potter film to reach $1 billion and the ninth film in cinema history to reach it. It reached this amount in record time, only 17 days!
According to the press release “the film has now earned an estimated $318.46 million domestically and an estimated $690 million on the international side for a worldwide total to date of approximately $1.008 billion, already making it, globally, the top-grossing film in Warner Bros. Pictures’ history. ”
Some Potter executives had this to say about the achievement:
Dan Fellman stated, “What’s truly astounding is that these kinds of numbers are being achieved so early in the film’s release. The movie’s excellent reviews, outstanding word-of-mouth and repeat business will ensure that Harry Potter will be charming moviegoers for months to come.”
Veronika Kwan-Rubinek remarked, “To say that the global response to the film has been extraordinary would be an understatement. We are so proud that this last film in the series has not only reached such heights but has reached them in record time. It is now Warner Bros.’ most successful release ever, and there is still plenty more to come.”
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