Attention must be paid! Harry Potter gets a little muggle love. Will the film make the Best Pic cut?
Sizing up the Harry Potter franchise, dollar by dollar:
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone – $317,575,550
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – $261,988,482
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – $249,541,069
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – $290,013,036
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – $292,004,738
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince – $301,959,197
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 – $295,001,070
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 – $381,011,219
Will the series go unrecognized by an insular Hollywood awards machine? Will voters not feel able to put this film in the number one spot because none of them are Potter fans? Oh maybe Dakota Fanning is. Can they not show appreciation for such a profitable series? It will be interesting to see if they do. With ten films, they probably could. The new voting system, the film has to hit at number one 60 or so times. After that it has to hit in the number 2 and 3 spots. Even though we know that it would make the Oscars a hundred times more appealing to whole generations to come, even though we know people would actually watch the Oscars for a chance, that still probably isn’t enough to shake up this stodgy group.
Entertainment Weekly is probably going to put, I’m gonna guess, War Horse on its Oscar issue. They should put The Artist there but that won’t sell magazines. Moneyball would be a rad and daring choice, as would The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – it could be The Descendants, come to that – they could do a Sexiest Men Alive cover with Clooney, Pitt, Damon, and should-be Gosling…but you know it’s gonna be War Horse.