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 | 2004-JUN-4: The next Harry Potter movie, "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" premiered in the U.S. and Canada. It is based on the third book in the projected series of seven. Warner Brothers has made available a trailer which features Gary Oldman as Sirius Black and Michael Gambon as the new Albus Dumbledore. See: http://harrypotter.warnerbros.com |
| 2004-JUN-7: The Harry Potter 3 movie was been a tremendous success during its first weekend. It grossed U.S. $92.65 million. This is the third largest three-day opening weekend of any movie in history, behind $114.8 million for Spider-Man and $108 million for Shrek 2. Dan Fellman, head of distribution for the movie's distributor Warner Bros. said: "I guess audiences are still crazy about Harry....What's fabulous about the series is, I think, as the actors have aged, so has the audience, and that's created a bond between them. The other thing is, as the actors have gotten older, they've gotten better, so the performances are the best yet." The movie "reunites Daniel Radcliffe as Harry with Rupert Grint and Emma Watson as his allies at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as they unravel the mystery of an escaped sorcerer (Gary Oldman) linked to the deaths of Harry's parents." |
| 2005-JUN-07: A cash prize awaits a real "Harry Potter." ABEbooks.com is attempting to track down the Harry Potters of the world. They have found four: A Latin teacher in Michigan, a retired seaman in Florida, a maker of children's videos in Texas, and a lawyer in the UK. Potters are invited to tell their stories on the ABE website. The story that the web site's visitors finds most interesting will win $1,000. An additional $1,000 will be donated to her or his favorite charity. 1 |
| 2005-JUL-16: "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," the sixth book in the Harry Potter seven book series, is scheduled to be released. Many bookstores held parties on the evening of JUL-15, leading up to the sale of the book at midnight. 2 |
| 2005-NOV-18: The movie: "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" opened across North America. Its run time is 2 hours and 30 minutes. It has been given a MPAA rating of PG-13, because of sequences of fantasy, violence, and frightening images. |
| 2006-MAY-02: Barna Group reports that more than 80% of
American teens have personally read books or watched movies in the Harry
Potter series. Among church going teens, the percentage is 77%; among
born-again teens, the percentage is 78%. This is in spite of strong
campaigns by conservative Christian faith groups against the books and
movies. Many Fundamentalist and other Evangelical
leaders have equated the imaginary, fantasy witchcraft in the books and
movies with Wicca and other Neo-pagan earth-centered religions, and have
feared the effect of both on their youth. Barna found that about one in
eight teenagers indicated that the material increased their interest in
witchcraft; they did not indicate whether this number refers to
imaginary witchcraft or real Neopagan religion. The Barna report states: |
"Overall, a majority of teens – Christian or other – are ingesting the mythology of the child wizard without any guidance from their parents or church leaders. Instead, teens are feeling their way through the spiritual themes either on their own or with the influence of their peers."
David Kinnaman, director of the research and vice president of The Barna Group, stated,
"While the Potter books generated an unprecedented following, it has been the movies that have helped propel the story into the mainstream of the Mosaic generation. But while the vast majority of teenagers and adolescents find entertainment value in Potter, most [conservative] Christian leaders and parents have responded by either condemning the series or ignoring it. That response hasn’t worked because most teens still consume the stories – along with dozens more like it – but without the critical input that would help them make sense of the supernatural dimension described in the Potter universe." 3
| 2007-FEB-02:  The
release date for the final book in the seven book series has been set at 2007-AUG-21.
It can be safely ordered at Amazon.com. |
| 2007-JUL-13: The fifth movie in the Harry Potter series, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" opened. Barnes & Noble gives a synopsis: |
"Hard times hit Hogwarts in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, as the boy wizard warns of the evil Lord Voldemort's return, only to face skepticism and denial from the Ministry of Magic." 4
A plot outline published by IMDb states:
"With their warning about Lord Voldemort's return scoffed at, Harry and Dumbledore are targeted by the Wizard authorities as an authoritarian bureaucrat slowly seizes power at Hogwarts." 5
The box-office revenue on its day of release was $44.8 million in the U.S. and 74 million worldwide. Among all movies released on a Wednesday, this is the highest grossing movie of all time. 6 A movie trailer is available for viewing. 4
| 2007-JUL-20: All or essentially all of the large bookstores
(Borders and Barnes & Noble in the U.S.; Chapters and Indigo in Canada)
stayed open in the evening and organized parties leading up to the
sale of the book at one minute past midnight. The Internet is awash with spoilers. One site in Europe contains photographs that were allegedly taken of each page of the new book. The frenzy to learn its contents was fueled by a statement by the author that two leading characters died in the final book. There was considerable speculation that Harry Potter himself would be one of the two. Fortunately, this was not so. Harry and his two side-kicks all survived. Many young people identify with Harry. Among these tens of millions of children and youths there were certain to be a few who are mentally unstable. If Harry had died, there might well have been a rash of sympathetic suicides around the world. An unidentified online retailer started shipping books during the week before the official released. This caused publisher Scholastic to take legal action. The New York Times and the Baltimore Sun published advance reviews of the book on JUL-19. R.K. Rowling said in a statement: |
"I am staggered that some American newspapers have decided to publish purported spoilers in the form of reviews in complete disregard of the wishes of literally millions of readers, particularly children. I am incredibly grateful to all those newspapers, booksellers and others who have chosen not to attempt to spoil Harry's last adventure for fans."
A spokesperson for the New York Times defended their book review:
"Our feeling is that once a book is offered up for sale at any public, retail outlet, and we purchase a copy legally and openly, we are free to review it. We came across a copy of 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' at a store in New York City and we bought it. We took great care not to give away the ending, nor to give away significant details about who lives and who dies, confining our review -- which, incidentally, had extremely high praise for both this final book and the entire series -- to broader-brush assessments of the tone and the writing." 7
| 2007-OCT-19: J.K. Rowling outs Albus Dumbledore: J.K. Rowling, 42, started her first tour of the U.S. in seven years with an appearance at Carnegie Hall. She told the audience what some Harry Potter fans had long suspected: that she "... always felt Dumbledore was gay." He is the head of Hogwarts School. According to Rowling, Dumbledore fell in love with Gellert Grindenwald, another wizard. However, Grindenwald became more interested in the dark arts; Dumbledore was "terribly let down" and went on to destroy his rival/love. She said that that love was Dumbledore's "great tragedy. ... Falling in love can blind us to an extent." She said that he had changed the screenplay for the movie version of her sixth book "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince." It had referred to Dumbledore's past female lover. She crossed it out and wrote "Dumbledore is gay" over the text. Her audience appears to have gone silent after her statement; then it erupted into applause. Rowling said that: "If I'd known it would make you so happy, I would have announced it years ago!" 8 | ||||||
| Future activities:
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References used:
- "Harry Potter 3 takes no prisoners," Associated Press. Published in the Toronto Star, 2004-JUN-7, Page B3.
- "Cash prize awaits Harry Potter namesake," The Toronto Star, 2005-JUN-07, Page C6.
- "Harry Potter Exposure Increases, Left Unchallenged," Christian Post, 2006-MAY-02, at: http://www.christianpost.com/
- "Harry Potter 5 movie trailer," Barnes & Noble, at: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/
- "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," IMDb, at: http://www.imdb.com/
- " 'Harry Potter' works box office magic in debut," Reuters, 2007-JUL-12, at: http://www.reuters.com/
- Mike Collett-White & Robert MacMillan. "Rowling angered as NYT reviews last Potter," Reuters, 2007-JUL-20, at: http://www.reuters.com/
- "JK Rowling says wizard Dumbledore is gay," Reuters, 2007-OCT-20, at: http://news.yahoo.com/
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Site navigation: Home page > "Hot" religious topics > Harry Potter > here |
Copyright © 2004 to 2007 by Ontario Consultants on Religious
Tolerance
Originally written: 2004-JUN-1
Latest update: 2007-OCT-21
Author: B.A. Robinson
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