Forget Voldemort: as far as the Harry Potter franchise goes, that which could not be named was the $1bn global box office milestone. For years the industry had expected at least one of the titles from Warner Bros' fantasy franchise to achieve this rare feat, but it proved elusive. The first movie in the series, Sorcerer's Stone, came closest on $974.8m in early 2002. The rest of the Potters were no slouches (the franchise has generated more than $6.3bn theatrically worldwide), but, for almost a decade since, studio executives had been watching expectantly as each successive movie failed to reach the mark.
Now, finally, Warner Bros has its $1bn champion. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 hit the jackpot on Sunday, making it the ninth film to join the billionaire club. Deathly Hallows joins Avatar, Titanic and Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides (which tipped the scales last month) behind the velvet rope.
It's been an extraordinary year all round for big, tentpole releases. The driver as usual has been the international sector, which typically accounts for 65% of a movie's global gross. Transformers: Dark of the Moon will cross $1bn by next weekend to become the 10th entry on the list. A place in that company is no mark of quality (the poor reviews of Michael Bay's third robot outing are testament to that), but Deathly Hallows is a terrific slice of entertainment that deserves to be there. There have been rumblings here in Hollywood about a possible Oscar run. I've no doubt Deathly Hallows: Part 2 will compete in the effects and sound editing categories, but it's a stretch to think it will do a Lord of the Rings and win 11 statuettes at the Academy awards next February.
We'll find out this week whether Cowboys & Aliens has trumped The Smurfs, or if the little blue twerps have bested Jon Favreau's action movie after the debutants tied for first place at the North American box office on $36.2m. It's rare that studio estimates result in a tie at the top, so we'll have to wait. While the delay hardly puts the debt-ceiling impasse in the shade, it does create a little bit of excitement among distribution circles and will give either Universal (Cowboys) or Sony (Smurfs) a good excuse to make another headline in the online trade press.
The critics gave a lukewarm response to Cowboys, a genre mash-up that pits wild west heroes Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford against extra-terrestrial marauders, but were less kind overall to The Smurfs. That said, audiences for these movies don't care what pundits say, nor should they. At a time when the role of critics is falling under increasing scrutiny, their musings on pop culture are less influential than ever before.
Mass entertainment doesn't need a critical thumbs-up to prosper. Savvy studios understand this and are looking for alternative means of promotion. That's why Universal took Cowboys & Aliens down to Comic-Con recently for the world premiere. It went down well and generated sufficiently strong advance word to drive the weekend launch. The Smurfs, on the other hand, did well because of brand awareness, an aggressive campaign by Sony, and because of the family dollar, which traditionally heats up during the summer months.
North American top 10, 29-31 July 2011
1 Cowboys & Aliens, $36.2m
2 The Smurfs, $36.2m
3 Captain America: The First Avenger, $24.9m. Total: $116.8m
4 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, $21.9m. Total: $318.5m
5 Crazy, Stupid, Love. $19.3m
6 Friends With Benefits, $9.3m. Total: $38.2m
7 Horrible Bosses, $7.1m. Total: $96.2m
8 Transformers: Dark of the Moon, $5.9m. Total: $337.9m.
9 Zookeeper, $4.2m. Total: $68.7m
10 Cars 2, $2.3m. Total: $182.1m
