Harry Potter Defeats Star Wars At Worldwide Box-Office

[James Harvey]

– "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" whizzed past "Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace" over the weekend ending Feb. 17 to become the second-highest grossing picture of all time worldwide.

"Potter" pulled in an estimated $5 million from 49 overseas territories, levitating its total to a whopping $612 million and selling nearly 120 million tickets. Add in the $314 million it has conjured in the United States, and J.K. Rowling's kid phenom has grossed $926.1 million worldwide.

"The Phantom Menace" falls to third place with a worldwide tally of $925.6 million, $431.1 million of which earned domestically.

But the British boy wizard has finally hit his plateau, dwarfed by the aptly-named "Titanic." James Cameron's three-hour love story is No. 1 and will remain so for the foreseeable future with a monolithic $1.835 billion worldwide take.

Not to be outdone, the "Star Wars" franchise will fire its next salvo, "Episode II - Attack of the Clones," on May 16. Taking a page from "Potter," it will strike the world at a rapid pace instead of the usual pattern of a slow roll-out after the movie has played domestically. But "Potter"-mania will hit the world soon after when "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" lands in theaters Nov. 15.


Source: www.zap2it.com

[Fantasie117]

$926.1 million

Wow...that's a big number.

[Joker85]

Well, Harry Potter was SOOO much better than the Phantom Menace so I think it deserves the title!Of course, I also thought it was better than Titantic so what do I know! :)

[Failure]

Jesus, Titanic made more than $1.8 billion worldwide? No one's ever going to top that.

[Jedigreedo]

Well judging by the fan bases, I'd say Harry Potter was a no-brainer of getting this title, granted the fan-base for Star Wars is probably bigger or about the same, the last Star Wars movie that came out was in '81 and hasn't really been for kids, just mainly teens and adults. Harry Potter though is pretty new and due to the movie coming out not really long after the books the kids of course are attracted to it, as are some adults and teens. Though why I have no idea. :rolleyes: Although I know deep down that Star Wars owns it all! :D Episode II should make a hefty come-back for Star Wars.

[Evil Dr. Reef]

Well, at least in Japan, Titanic isn't the number one movie anymore.
Hayao Miyazaki is a God!
"Spirited Away" rules!

[joshualane]

Originally posted by Evil Dr. Reef
Well, at least in Japan, Titanic isn't the number one movie anymore.
Hayao Miyazaki is a God!
"Spirited Away" rules!
Not only does Miyazaki have the #1 film in Japan EVER, he also has the #3 film as well in Princess Monoke. Besides that, Spirited Away is the only international film EVER to reach $200 million without ever even playing to audiences outside it's native country.

Back to the topic at hand though, I'm not surprised that Potter has done as well as it has. I wonder how much J.K. Rowling's cut of the profits is.

[Squall]

I don't see why this is a big surprise, or even a bad thing. Star Wars finally has some competition in the "big epic stories that takes multiple movies to play out" category -- the Harry Potter movie series AND the Lord of the Rings movie series.

But who says they're actually competing against each other, in the traditional sense? All three movie series will do well, and that's great. All three storylines are well done, and that's awesome. I love Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, and I don't like Harry Potter, but I'm not a Harry Potter-basher or anything. If people like Harry Potter, then more power to them. :D It's a free country, after all. :)

When all 6 Star Wars movies have come out, all 7 Harry Potter movies have come out, and all 3 Lord of the Rings movies have come out, (...When will this be? Around 2010?...) I wonder what the Top 20 All-Time Money-Making Movie List will look like THEN . I have a feeling that those three movie series (with a few others, like Titanic, the Indiana Jones movies, etc.) will dominate the Top 20 list by that time... :)

[RockItShipper]

The next two LOTR movies are scheduled for 12/02 (The Two Towers) and 12/03 (Return of the King), I believe. Most of the shooting was done in a year or so, although I just heard about new scenes shooting in June.

Star Wars Episode 3 is supposed to be out in May 2005. It's supposed to be really, really dark.

Harry Potter 3 is scheduled for 2004, and HP4 may be released as two movies. I just hope they start standing on their own as movies, because I don't think the first one really did- as much as I liked it.

[JohnCrichton]

How did Titanic do so well??? I mean, when it was out, I didn't even know it was out.

Nor did I care.

I saw it on HBO and it really touched my heart, but while it was out I heard no buzz nor was I compelled to see it.

A movie this big... you think I would've heard something....

[ccffan01]

The Phantom Menace really sucked it only sold because it was attached to the "good" star wars movies.

[TuffyCatt]

I find it hard to imagine Harry Potter going through all seven movies, especially if they're trying to keep the pace at one movie each year. With each book becoming increasingly longer each time, the quality of the harry Potter movies will probably come down. I can see them doing the first three, but even turning the fourth book into two movies will be a hard thing to do in terms of time and quality.

Anyway, I'm happy that the first movie did well. I think that it was well done. And I hope the next Star Wars and Lord of the Rings movies turn out to be good.

[Karkull]

Originally posted by Failure
Jesus, Titanic made more than $1.8 billion worldwide? No one's ever going to top that.

Just wait...somebody will, :) .

[Failure]

Originally posted by Karkull


Just wait...somebody will, :) .

*closes eyes* I hope, I hope, I hope!

Perhaps one of the future HP's? or maybe an upcoming LOTR sequel? or could SW vault back to the top? Something tells me if it happens, it's not gonna be a sequel.

[The Mad Hatter]

Jesus, Titanic made more than $1.8 billion worldwide? No one's ever going to top that.

Well, maybe when movie tickets cost $1 million each. Which, considering how often prices get hiked, should happen around 2012 or so.

[RockItShipper]

Originally posted by TuffyCatt
I find it hard to imagine Harry Potter going through all seven movies, especially if they're trying to keep the pace at one movie each year. With each book becoming increasingly longer each time, the quality of the harry Potter movies will probably come down. I can see them doing the first three, but even turning the fourth book into two movies will be a hard thing to do in terms of time and quality.

So far, the books keep getting longer but I've heard the next book is shorter. Book 4's the turning point, which is why it's so long. I read somewhere that book 7's going to be long, so that JKR can say goodbye to all the characters.