A KINDA MAGIC: Reviews for the latest Harry Potter film, The Order of the Phoenix, have been lukewarm but that likely won't stop muggles turning out in droves to see their favourite boy wizard. Subscribe to Archivestuff Have your say The new Harry Potter movie drew lukewarm reviews heading into its global debut, but millions of "muggles" are expected to ignore the critics and turn out in droves, box office watchers said. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the fifth film in the series based on the best-selling novels by JK Rowling about a British boy wizard, opens around the world on Wednesday as one of the summer's hottest movie titles.
In total, the first four Potter movies raked in $US3.5 billion ($NZ4.55 billion) in theatrical release, starting with Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in 2001.
Online ticket seller Fandango.com said advance sales for Phoenix were outpacing earlier summer hits Spider-Man 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, and hundreds of debut screenings set for midnight Tuesday were sold out. "These Potter movies are a phenomenon, not only in the US but worldwide, and I fully expect this film will live up to the box office success of its predecessors," said Paul Dergarabedian of box office tracker Media By Numbers.
That is good news for film studio Warner Bros., a unit of Time Warner Inc, which makes and markets the Potter films, because so far major critics have been less than joyous. Phoenix finds Harry, portrayed again by Daniel Radcliffe, having to defend his use of magic in his recent confrontation with the evil Lord Voldemort, while his protector, Professor Dumbledore, is strangely distant.
The New York Times said, "Although (it) is not a great movie, it is a pretty good one." And The Los Angeles Times called it "no more than a way station in an epic journey," referring to the fact a total of seven films are planned. In London, The Times newspaper gave Phoenix three stars out of five after its Tokyo premiere and said, "It is a film where the balance of narrative tips from action to intrigue, and there are some that will find that tedious.
" To be fair, website , which compiles reviews, gives the movie a 74 per cent favourable rating. Box office watchers call the Potter movies "review proof" because their legions of fans and other muggles - the term for normal humans in the wizard world - typically ignore critics. The first film, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, grossed $US976 million worldwide in 2001, and four years later, the box office for the fourth film, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, slipped only 8 per cent to $US892 million.
All four films so far rank in the top 20 of all-time worldwide box office champs, and Philosopher's Stone is No. 4, according to another box office tracker, A KINDA MAGIC: Reviews for the latest Harry Potter film, The Order of the Phoenix, have been lukewarm but that likely won't stop muggles turning out in droves to see their favourite boy wizard.
News RSS