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Sunday, July 19
| Title | Weekend | Total | Analysis |
| Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince | $79.5M | $159.6M | 6th in Potter franchise had great weekend by any standard other than Transformers 2, which grossed $109M in its first weekend after Wednesday opening. |
| Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs | $17.7M | $152.0M | No match for Potter but stays strong in 3rd week of release. |
| Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen | $13.8M | $363.9M | Robot sequel continues to roll up impressive numbers, and may make push for super-exclusive $400M club. |
| Bruno | $8.4M | $49.6M | Huge 73% dropoff puts Bruno in bomb zone. |
| The Hangover | $8.3M | $235.9M | Raunchy dude flick continues amazing run; still in Top 5 in 7th week of release. The sequel already has a release date. |
Bomb of the Week: Bruno fell out of fashion with moviegoers about as fast as his velcro suit did at Agatha Ruiz De La Prada's show in Milan, barely eking out a win over The Hangover. Sasha Baron Cohen is clearly brilliant but this one struck a false note.
Posted 7/19/2009 by reelz
Related: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
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Friday, July 17
Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes isn't due in theaters until December 25, but fans are already excited about the movie. Count Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince's Daniel Radcliffe among them. He told Entertainment Weekly that Holmes is the movie he's "most looking forward to seeing" this year.
Apparently Radcliffe is a "huge fan" of the British Sherlock Holmes TV show starring Jeremy Brett. He says Brett's Holmes is a great example of playing "an over-the-top character without ever being over-the-top himself." We hope Radcliffe knows that Robert Downey Jr. is Holmes this time around.
It's easy to be swept up into Radcliffe's enthusiasm after watching the latest trailer for Sherlock Holmes. Even a fickle New York audience applauded it. Check it out below:
Posted 7/17/2009 by Ryan
Related: Daniel Radcliffe | Guy Ritchie | Jeremy Brett | Robert Downey Jr. | Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince | Sherlock Holmes
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Thursday, July 16
Who better to offer movie reviews than fans? That's the goal behind our long-running First Fans segment. And it's now part of our new Saturday Morning @ ReelzChannel show.
For this weekend, we're looking for a junior high Harry Potter fan who'd like to offer commentary, via Skype, on Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. If that's you, please email us at info@ReelzChannel.com. Don't worry, we can talk you through the technology.
Posted 7/16/2009 by reelz
Related: Saturday Morning @ ReelzChannel | Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
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Poor Daniel Radcliffe. The Harry Potter mega-franchise debuted his latest film this week to record-breaking numbers, but everyone keeps asking him questions about his one-time co-star — and current Twilight sensation — "sex symbol" Robert Pattinson.
In an interview with MTV, Radcliffe had to steer questions about Pattinson and Twilight back to himself and Harry Potter.
It's really interesting for me, as somebody who is a central feature of a pretty huge franchise. It's interesting to watch — because I haven't seen Twilight — and to suddenly be able to just watch another franchise go massive is really interesting.
I have no concept of what Potter looks like to the rest of the world because I'm so involved in it. So to watch Twilight kind of explode globally had been fascinating.
Even Radcliffe's co-star, Emma Watson, who plays Hermione Granger in the Potter series, has found herself having to answer questions about Pattinson. She told MTV:
I'm not surprised he's been successful. I'm surprised that it's got this insane. I think he's a great actor.
Next Showing: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is in theaters now!
Posted 7/16/2009 by BrentJS
Related: Daniel Radcliffe | Emma Watson | Robert Pattinson | Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince | The Twilight Saga: New Moon
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With Eclipse — the third movie in the Twilight saga — set to start shooting next month, it's probably about time for Summit Entertainment to start making casting decisions. Rumors abound that Harry Potter's Tom Felton (aka Draco Malfoy) is set to play Victoria's lackey Riley in the flick. In Summit's June casting call, they were looking for Riley to be a "handsome, blond, clean-cut college boy." If he trades the black turtleneck and jacket for an Abercrombie & Fitch tee, Felton could be a dead-ringer for the part.
Posted 7/16/2009 by reelz
Related: Tom Felton | Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince | The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
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Harry Potter has never exactly been a favorite at the Vatican. At least not until now.
In 2005, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future pope, warned that the Harry Potter novels contained "subtle seductions" that could lead young people astray. Others at the Vatican were even more dramatic, directly linking the boy wizard to the devil. And the official Vatican newspaper had earlier condemned Harry Potter as the "wrong model of of hero."
But a review of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in that very same paper now calls it "the best of the series," praising the movie for striking the "correct balance" in its depiction of teen romance, and for its clear contrast of good and evil.
What exactly motivated this change of heart? It's a mystery.
Posted 7/16/2009 by Bill
Related: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
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Wednesday, July 15
According to Variety, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince set an all-time record for its midnight opening, which took in an estimated $22.2 million. The movie screened a combined 3,003 times in theaters across the country, which means each screening took in almost $7,400.
This figure puts the sixth Potter movie well ahead of The Dark Knight and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, which earned $18 million and $17 million, respectively with their midnight debuts. It also eclipses the $16 million made by last month's midnight screenings of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
In addition, ABC News10 in Sacramento is reporting that Half-Blood Prince has overtaken The Dark Knight as the #2 entry on Fandango's list of Top 10 all-time advance ticket sellers. That puts it ahead of movies like Twilight, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, and Spiderman 3. It now trails only Revenge of the Sith.
For some fun accounts of last night's midnight mayhem, check out this article in The New York Daily News and this one from The San Diego News Network.
Also worth a look is this video from The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which involves mock protesters marching against the presence of muggles:
Posted 7/15/2009 by Rich Z
Related: Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith | The Dark Knight | Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince | Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
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You would think that an actor's preparation for a work of adapted fiction would involve intense study of the source material. But in a recent interview with The Los Angeles Times, veteran actor Michael Gambon — star of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which opened today — said that this is not the case with his prep for any of the Potter movies.
Gambon, who portrays Professor Dumbledore, said that he and co-stars Alan Rickman and Ralph Fiennes — professors Snape and Lord Voldemort, respectively — have refrained from reading a single word from any of J. K. Rowling's famed series.
You'd get upset about all the scenes it's missing from the book, wouldn't you? No point in reading the books because you're playing with [screenwriter] Steve Kloves' words.
The article also discussed Gambon's take on Dumbledore, which is decidedly different from that of Richard Harris, who played the role in the first two movies before his death in 2002. Many fans were put off by Gambon's gruff and edgy portrayal, which better illustrates the character's mischievious nature at the expense of losing much of his grandfatherly nature. Gambon reflected upon his interpretation:
He's got to be a bit scary. All headmasters should be a bit scary, shouldn't they? A top wizard like him would be intimidating. And ultimately, he's protecting Harry. Essentially, I play myself. A little Irish, a little scary. That's what I'm like in real life.
Posted 7/15/2009 by Rich Z
Related: Alan Rickman | Michael Gambon | Ralph Fiennes | Steve Kloves | Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
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Sunday, July 12
Apparently, actor Daniel Radcliffe has something of an inferiority complex. At least, that is, when it comes to his former Harry Potter co-star and current Twilight sensation Robert Pattinson. While at the New York City premiere of his latest film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Radcliffe spoke highly of Pattinson at his own expense:
Rob Pattinson is a sex symbol. Rob Pattinson is a genuine sexy guy. He's got the height.
If you like short and nerdy, then I'm a sex symbol.
Life imitating art? After all, Pattinson's character in the Harry Potter movies, Cedric Diggory, was Harry's dashing rival for the affections of Cho Chang.
When asked about his own love life, Radcliffe said:
As a romantic leading man, I try to keep my personal life as far removed from the film as possible.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince also stars Emma Watson as Hermione Granger, Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley, and Michael Gambon as Albus Dumbledore.
Next Showing: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince debuts July 15
Posted 7/12/2009 by BrentJS
Related: Daniel Radcliffe | Robert Pattinson | Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince | Twilight
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Saturday, July 11
With Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince debuting in just a few days, filmmakers and stars have already started ramping up expectations for the series' two-part finale. At a New York press conference, director David Yates revealed that shooting for the first part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is roughly 85% complete, and since the movies are being shot in tandem, about 10% of the shooting for the second part has been done as well.
The two parts are going to be quite different though, the director explained:
The first movie is a road movie basically, and it's quite intense and very raw and we're way away from Hogwarts, and it's a bit like three refugees being pursued across the landscape by these terrible Death Eaters. We're really enjoying it actually. It feels very different. ... The first one is very verité and documentary and edgy and on the road, and the second part is a big opera basically, a great big epic with huge battles and very oddly moving, because it concludes the whole saga really. So they're two very different films.
Not only will they be different from each other, but a big change from what came before as well, according to Daniel Radcliffe:
I'm so excited about the seventh film. I don't know if anybody else had the same experience as me over the last couple of days, but seeing the sixth film again, it does suddenly strike me that we are doing something very, very different with the seventh film.
As to the precise details of the movies, where part one will end, and exactly what the movies will and will not include, filmmakers were a bit more circumspect. And some key issues haven't been resolved yet.
Different ideas for how to do the final scene, in which the characters 19 years later are sending their own children off to Hogwarts are still being explored. "Probably not Benjamin Button technology," Yates says. But producer David Heyman adds, "We're going to do everything we can and it will be Dan, Rupert and Emma in those parts, not some other actors."
Posted 7/11/2009 by Bill
Related: Daniel Radcliffe | David Heyman | David Yates | Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2