I stand corrected on the oscars, it was considered for best picture, but didn't make the cut, for some reason I was remembering it had.
Without delving into a full HP discussion the first film grossed 974 million vs. 933 for HP6, You calculate inflation over 8 years and the first one blew the 6th out of the water, and the first was a Thanksgiving release, not even a summer release.
The 6th film was a total injustice to the book. As a stand alone movie, it has no ending, they cut out Dumbledore's funeral, the scene of the Weasley's house burning down never happened, and the most important part Alan Rickman who should have been featured in the film was given the bare minimum screen time.
I may be in the minority, but the film was crap and had none of the magical wonder of the films. I hope HP 7 is much, much better.
Since the last two Potter films all had 60% drops in week 2, releasing Cap a week after if the movie is promoted well isn't a big deal, although I agree that more space should have been given. However there's still a chance Cap could get pushed back into August.
The first star wars grossed much more then Empire Strikes back. Yet ESB is considered by most to be better. The first Spider-man grossed more then Spider-man 2. SM2 is considered by most to be better. Gross does not reflect what people feel the quality of the movie is. If it did, Transformers 2 would have to be considered one of the best movies made in the past decade.
Empire Strikes Back also ended on a cliffhanger ending, does that mean it is a bad movie as well?
And again, the Weasley's House burning down and the cutting DD's funeral should not effect your judgement of the movie as a FILM. In the film version of Jurassic Park Hammond is not an egotistical *****e bag who doesn't care if his kids get killed. Muldune dies, while he lives in the book, Grant and Ellie have a romantic relationship that never existed in the novel, and they don't have to go into the Raptors nest at the end of the movie.
But I didn't mind that, because I judged the movie solely on it's basis as a FILM.
Not an ADAPTATION. Faithfulness to source material do not effect the quality of a film. The Bourne Identity movies are very well made movies. They are HORRIBLE adaptations. But as films, they're well made, well crafted, and well acted.
HBP was not, in any imaginable sense, a bad movie. It had a compelling story, good acting, wonderful cinematography, and some breathtaking action scenes. Was it amazing? No, but it was a good movie. A good adaptation? Not all that great, but it could have been much worse.
And the HP films have had a fairly consistent drop off rate for the past few movies. However, we want to keep in mind that this is the last film of a cultural phenomenon, and for beasts like this, the first and last films always gross the most. DH2, if done well, will gross quite a bit. And that could hurt Cap, but hopefully not too much.
As long as he's not advertised as crappily as TIH was.