Lord of The Rings may not be as big as HP, but it will be huge, and AOL Time Warner will hype it mercilessly before the film is released.
My guess, fwiw, is that LOTR will be much larger than HP, by far the biggest movie of the year, for the following reasons:
1. As you say, it's being hyped mercilessly. This ensures a big opening even for stinkers.
2. It doesn't stink. The first reviews are out, and they're good. The movie works, they say, not just as eyecandy, but as a gripping story. There have been few good movies out this year, so word of mouth should be big for this one.
3. I don't care how many fans HP has, Tolkien has more. And they've all been waiting two years to see this movie.
4. The basic theme of the movie is the free people of Middle Earth forming a coalition to defeat a long-hidden evil that has burst into the open and is threatening to conquer them. Does this theme sound familiar? The current war climate will only give a tailwind to LOTR. |
