A decade has past since the Harry Potter phenomenon started with Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone and since then we have seen 8 more Potter movies hit the big screen, creating the most lucrative franchise of all time (Bond fans may disagree). The movie already had a massive hype surrounding it due to the global success of author/creator J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter books. The books had become very popular among school children and had even started to become popular with adults. This popularity prompted Warner Bros. to buy the rights for a film version of the books, which has proved to be one of the best deals they ever made.
The franchise was set up perfectly starting with perfect casting for roles that most of the world had already fallen in love with. This could have been a massive turning point of the franchise if the cast had been assembled poorly but each character slotted nicely into what everyone expected Harry and the rest of the gang to actually look/act like.
1. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
Director: Chris Columbus
Release Date: 2001
1st Weekend Gross: $90,294,621
Worldwide Gross: $974,755,371
Never declared as a brilliant movie, but Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone became an instant hit and taking nearly $1 billion in its first outing it was the start of a juggernaut of a franchise and Potter-mania was born. Many claim this is the best book to movie adap ever, which was key to the success of the movies.
2. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Director: Chris Columbus
Release Date: 2002
1st Weekend Gross: $88,357,488
Worldwide Gross: $878,987,880
Taking slightly less than its predecessor Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was still a box office smash. It managed to secure the success of the franchise and proved that Potter would have a long term Box Office presence.
3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Director: Alfonso Cuaron
Release Date: 2004
1st Weekend Gross: $93,687,367
Worldwide Gross: $796,688,549
A change of director for this third Potter outing with Alfonso Cuaron taking the reigns and he manages to help The prisoner of Azkaban take the biggest opening weekend for the franchise to this point. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is in fact has the lowest worldwide gross for any of the Potter films, but not to be outdone by its higher earning counterparts Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is considered by many to be one of the best of all the Potter films. Probably the first film where you can see the stars of the film starting to come of age and really start to become respectable actors/actresses, particularly Rupert Grint and Emma Watson.
4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Director: Mike Newell
Release Date: 2005
1st Weekend Gross: $102,685,961
Worldwide Gross: $896,911,078
Now four years on from its debut, the franchise takes on its third different director in Mike Newell. He had the difficult task of turning one of the best loved Potter books into a movie. It seems he did a good job with The Goblet of Fire becoming the franchises second highest earner (to this point) worldwide behind the series opener and smashing the franchise opening weekend takings record by taking a whopping $102,685,961.
5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Director: David Yates
Release Date: 2007
1st Weekend Gross: $77,108,414
Worldwide Gross: $939,885,929
This is where the regins of Potter were handed over to director David Yates who would go onto complete the franchises remaining movies. Now six years on Potter continues to make mega box office money by being the second Potter film to break the $900 million barrier worldwide. Slightly criticised for skipping a lot of the book as The Order of the Phoenix (an 800 page book) was crammed into one movie, but by now the films had almost taken on there own independence from the books.
6. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Director: David Yates
Release Date: 2009
1st Weekend Gross: $77,835,727
Worldwide Gross: $934,416,487
The franchise by now started to turn a bit darker, which worked well given the stars age now 8 years on from there first appearance. The Half Blood Prince is the Potter film which had the biggest budget out of all the movies with a massive $250 million, but that was nicely returned with a box office taking of $934,416,487.
7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I
Director: David Yates
Release Date: 2010
1st Weekend Gross: $125,017,372
Worldwide Gross: $955,417,476
This was the start of the end for Potter and the fans new it by coming out in there droves to see it, taking $125,017,372 in its first weekend it was the biggest opening for any Potter movie (to this point) and taking $955,417,476, it was clear that this was going to be a massive ending to the franchise.
8. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II
Director: David Yates
Release Date: 2011
1st Weekend Gross: $169,189,427
Worldwide Gross: $569,887,891 (and counting….)
The final instalment for the franchise is an emotional send off and the world has gone Potter mad once again. Breaking all sorts of records in its first week Deathly Hallows: Part II smashed the exsisting opening weekend record of £151 million (set by Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight back in 2008) by nearly $20 million taking $169,189,427 in two days, which is quite incredible. Also the only Potter film to be in 3D, you would not bet against this finale to be the only Potter film to break the $1 billion mark.
Franchise Totals
Date Range: 2001 – 2011
Biggest 1st Weekend Gross: $169,189,427 – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II
Biggest Worldwide Gross: $974,755,371 – Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
Combined 1st Weekend Gross: $824,176,377
Combined Worldwide Gross: $6,946,950,661
There is no doubt that Harry Potter has been a massively successful franchise and has become the most successful franchise of all time. Many fans are sad to see it go, but it has bowed out on a high and before any of its stars look to old to be playing a boy wizard.
What was your favourite Potter film? Leave a comment below.
Interesting post
I saw the last installment of the HP franchise last night in 3D and thought it was AWESOME. I even cried like three times, in part because of some sad scenes, but mainly because Harry Potter was a big part of my childhood and after ten years of it, it is all over. I saw the first movie when I was seven years old and loved it (especially the part of the huge living chess game). The next year I read HP and the Chamber of Secrets and the crazyness began. I became obsessed with Harry Potter. I used to collect tree branches and turn them into wands and I even had a tiny hope that everything was real and who knows, maybe I would get a Howgarts letter at my eleventh birthday (I was eight, remember xD). Everytime a new book was released I would forget about the world and get into it for hours. So, you know, Harry Potter means a lot to me. As for the movies, I really liked the first three ones, but that didn’t happen with the fourth, fifth and sixth (which I star watching on DVD instead of on the cinema). I think that the main problem was that the books were way too long to turn them into a two hours movie, so many things were missing there. But the fourth and fifth books are also my least favourites. Anyway, the last two movies were really great, and watching the last installment on 3D was totally worth-it. It didn’t only live up to my expectations, but exceeded them. My favourite scenes were the one with the dragon (spectacular!) and the one with Goyle’s fire spell. And I liked the fact that they made the young actors look old at the end, instead of casting older actors. Though looking at them that way made burst out laughing xD
To sum up, I do think it was a great ending. And kind of sad at the same time, due to all the years Potter has been in my life.
Thanks for the fantastic comment Guadi, I think there will be many people who will be very sad at the end to a decade of Harry Potter, particularly the generation that grew up with it.
Unbelievable to see that this final instalment of HP is now the third highest selling movie of all time. It shows how strong the Potter following is even after all this time.
It took time for me to warm to the Harry Potter films. I think I needed time to get over the end of the Lord of the Rings saga. But once I got into Harry Potter I was a fan until the end. My favourite of all the films is the Prisoner of Azkaban.
@Dan – Yes many do agree that Azkaban is the best of all the Potter films, even though it earned the lowest in the box office.