Unit 26 Assignment 3

 

Harry Potter

Harry Potter fan fiction, stories based on the series but written and distributed by fans, is the most searched-for subject of all fan fiction on the web. The fandom not only interacts online in Internet forums, but also gathers at scholarly fan conventions, tours of iconic landmarks relevant to the books and production of the films, and parties held for the midnight release of each book and film. Harry Potter fans usually call themselves "Potterheads", though some may refer to themselves as "Witches/ Wizards" or "Pottermaniacs".

By the fourth Harry Potter book, the legions of Harry Potter fans had grown so large that considerable security measures were taken to ensure that no book was purchased before the official release date. Studies on the fandom have shown that both children and adults are fans, despite Rowling's original marketing of the books towards children aged nine to twelve.

The Harry Potter Franchise isnt aimed at any gender in particular. You could argue its more aimed at girls but just as many boys enjoy the films, of any age. 

MARKETING

Harry Potter has its own theme park kind of thing at Universal studios in orlando, https://www.universalorlando.com/harrypotter/. This Consists of shops and rides. Rides such as 'The Snitch Seeker'. The exact net worth of the Harry Potter franchise is unknown, but it is estimated to be around $15 billion. Author J.K. Rowling alone is worth approximately $1 billion.

Trailers for harry potter are very adrenaline rushing if that makes sense? They have you on edge and consequently make you want to watch more, this trailer is from Harry Potter 8 (The Deathly Hallows). The Marketing Success for harry potter in my opinion is behind all the trailers. Theres about 4 different trailers per movie and there all so drawing and leave us on edge and ultimately make us want to watch the film.


This is the Trailer from Harry Potter and The Philosophers stone, Which is the first ever movie. This means this film set the standards. This Trailer is amazing. and back when this film was released there were plenty of other films being released, back then films made more of a impact, Toy Story For Example, Bugs Life, Lion King and just more, the most successful films that are around today like Harry potter etc all started off in early 2000's So that says quite allot about the industry in my opinion. So the first Harry Potter Got the best reaction it possibly could of wanted. So The standards were set and they just kept rising throughout the film series

There are countless harry potter posters, rides and merch. There is the snitchseeker ride in Orlando. Harry Potter reaches out to people ages 12 onwards for most films, how ever, there are many younger fans. And having a ride at a theme park would target 'kids' very well.


There are allot of Harry Potter Promotional events, it seems it doesnt really die down. Although all the films are now released and theres nothing for the Harry Potter franchise to do now, they still pump out fresh new ideas. And this kicks up a new fresh fans and attracts attention 

The final book in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was published in Europe and the US in July, its first American edition receiving a record-breaking print run of 12m copies.
It is to be published in Japan later this month, with a first edition print run of 2m, and a second edition already in preparation. The paperback will be published in Europe and the US on July 10 by Bloomsbury.
Rowling was also personally responsible for adding one more sale to the 400m-plus worldwide total, after she penned and sold for charity a short, 800-word prequel, raising £25,000 for Dyslexia Action and English PEN at auction last month.

 As you can see, the OPENING WEEKEND for ALL the harry potters made a crazy turn out. All making over 240 Million in ONE Weekend. The turn ups for the premiers were insane, an estimated 19,000 Turned up to Just Trafalgar square alone, for the premiering of Harry Potter And The Prisoner of Azkaban. When you think about how much 19,000 people is, thats insane. thats an awful lot of bodies in one place. 


COMPARISON TO TWILIGHT.

Both films Harry potter and twilight have their own similarity's in style and how their promotions look, theyre both based on a magical and kind of, Mythical kind of film, if that makes sense. Although Twilight made it to be a VERY successful film, developed a fandom and became a world wide known film it didnt do aswel as harry potter. Not For any reason, but Harry Potter Just changed the way things were done in my opinion. It just conquered the Industry and made the biggest impact it could. The Posters, the Trailers and the kind of theme to the two films are so similar, it really does say something about success in this industry that is currently on going. 

Look How similar they are. They're two very similar posters for two fairly similar films. The WHOLE campaign was very alike. Twilight did a competition to spend a day with the stars on the red carpet of the second film, over four hundred thousand people entered. Think, if all them people told their friends etc the word of the film would get around which only just helps towards their success, Harry potter on the other hand did more give away based prizes and competitions in comparison to more physical and exciting competitions like Twilight did.


HARRY POTTER REVIEWS

The Guardian: Sensational, satisfying, surreal ... an explosive final chapter puts the magic back into the Harry Potter franchise. WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS - 4 Stars

Rolling stone: Even my nitpicking reveals how much Rowling's characters and their cinematic avatars have worked their way into our heads and made us care. I dare you not to choke up, especially at the epilogue that takes us 19 years into Harry's future. That's the true power of the finale. These characters are ours now. What an exhilarating gift to watch Harry and Company go out in a blaze of glory and amazing grace. Note to Academy muggles: Get busy coming up with that Best Picture nomination you've denied all the other Potter films. Oscar attention must be paid. - 4 Stars

TWILIGHT REVIEWS:

Rotten Tomatoes: I watched Twilight in a cinema full of young girls who, when they weren't texting friends and guzzling soft drinks, giggled, sighed and exhaled with a passion that was not only endearing, but a measure of its emotional truth. - 3 Stars

The Guardian: Twilight really does have an infatuation with surface beauty, especially where the vampires are concerned. In fact they sum up the film pretty well. It's a façade, an appealing one to people who share the right appetites, but that's all.  - 3 Stars

See, Twilight is a film that you could class on as hated upon, as its a feminine film alot of males give it stick, kind of like Justin Bieber and One Direction if that makes sense? people give them uneccaserry hate that really makes no sense what so ever. If it was just females rating the film it would surely be a higher rating. maybe this is the wrong opinion im casting? maybe people genuinely think its a bad film, but to a extent im kind of sure im right. 

Harry potter is a family film though, Twilight is dominantly a female fanbase, Harry potter is very mixed, theres probably a few more females but its definately close, So that has support of both genders, and obviously all ages, a 14 year old girls opinion on twilight is going to be different to a 45 year old mans opinion on twilight...i'd hope so anyway, how ever them to ages and genders compared to Harry potter may be the same. Some men would easily sit and watch a Harry potter film and find it entertaining. But I feel harry potter is more of a any age any gender kind of film. Maybe im just being stereotypical, but sometimes stereotypes are right.

FANDOMS: 

Fandoms, now. Fandoms are just basically a group of maniacs. A fandom is a group of people that are MORE than fans. A fandom is a big online gathering of people CRAZY about their idols or things they like. Im in numerous fandoms. quite strange for a 16 year old boy to be in fandoms but... Fandoms are just amazing. Its essentially a mass following for someone or something. People in fandoms and normal 'fans' are different. just FANS have abit of interest in something they might like it but if you in a FANDOM for something your probably a emotional wreck left on edge by your fandom each day. 

The Harry potter fandom is called 'PotterHeads'. Yes, fandoms have cool names. The Twilight fandom i believe is the 'Twihards'. The Potterhead fandom is so much bigger because it has 6 more films than the Twihard fandom and has just got a generally bigger following. Fandoms are usually based on twitter to my experience, a main part of being in a fandom is to get recognised by your idols. I dont know any stories about the Twihard fandom but i know the Potterheads got something trending on twitter to make Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) to notice them and he followed a bunch of them on twitter, fandoms do things like that, and make fanfics which are basically stories about there idols, for example a fan could make up a prequel of harry potter and like do the story but as harrys mum and dads life when they went to Hogwarts, things like that, fan art is also very weird and wonderful. This is Some Harry potter Fan Art, Its just a fans version of the characters obviously they're similar but a fan has just kinda made them cartoony and thats the kinda things fandoms do. OBVIOUSLY all this attention spreads and causes advertisement which is obviously a great thing for Harry potter. JK Rowling, Who created harry potter is loved by fans. fact. The fans even add her into Fanfics etc, This makes the audience much greater and wider. You Have her fans that shes brought over to the Harry Potter Fandom. Now ALL of her fans are reliant on her bringing out the best Harry Potter films she can. Her track record has been very successful for Harry potter. hence why shes made 8 ridiculously successful films. Her relationship to the fandom is most definately one of the reasons why everything played out in such a successful way for her.