This generation's Star Wars

[Spider-ManHero12]

If Rowling keeps expanding the universe, we will start seeing conventions. When she founds her own movie production company...then we are all in trouble

I hope that doesn't happen.

 

[Ipodman]

Harry Potter feels very widespread to me... certainly more widespread than Matrix, not so sure about LOTR, probably more than LOTR, LOTR seems to be more of a cult now. Maybe after the HP movies are over and done with, HP will become a cult too.

 

[Erzengel]

If they started doing prequels or even the start of the 4 houses of Hogwarts and expand Harry Potter past Harry Potter. But, who knows if Rowling plans on doing that OR plans on letting anyone ever do it.

 

[redhawk23]

They had an inkling that HP would be a success. Rowling's books did sell hundreds of millions of copies. It didn't necessarily come out of nowhere.

The books did though. Harry Potter is different from star wars because it didn't start as movies. If youre going on purely a film basis, then no Harry Potter is not comparable, despite its huge grossings. However in terms of being widespread into a number of different mediums, Id wager that harry potter is. I mean star wars is more expansive still, but its also been around for 20 years longer. One can wager that the merchendising strategies of Harry Potter wouldn't exist if it weren't for star wars. I'd agree. However were there midnight release parties for books before Harry Potter? This series has also had its own influence on the way media is sold.

As others have said, Harry Potter has a theme park, a major investment that is likely to keep it around for a good while, its filming studios are being kept intact as a tour. It already has its own conventions not to mention a number of BANDS that sing exclusively about it. (wizard rock is the most perplexing part of HP fandom I must say.)

 

[Lord]

They had an inkling that HP would be a success. Rowling's books did sell hundreds of millions of copies. It didn't necessarily come out of nowhere.

I'm talking about the books, at first Rowling couldn't find anyone to publish her books, it's success actually came from nowhere, in least the books success.

 

[danoyse]

That's understandable. Harry Potter is still a different kind of beast then Star Wars. Especially since the books started out as children's books and slowly grew into young adult/adult fantasy novels. But it's impacted this generation in a huge way. Especially since the Harry Potter generation has grown up, so HP is moving into the adult aspect. I'm 21, and I grew up with Harry Potter, and there are millions of people who grew up with it just like me, in addition to all the younger kids who have been turned on to it by the movies.

Now, with Star Wars, you had films that not only impacted a generation, but also revolutionized the film industry. Harry Potter hasn't done that. The films have been solid, but nothing revolutionary like Star Wars was. But there's no denying that Harry Potter has been, and still is, a huge pop culture event.

They're very similar in a lot of respects. Return of the Jedi opened when I was 9, and I saw it opening day...and I got the last Harry Potter book at one of the midnight release parties, and the crowds were very similar. My mom even said at the HP release party that the kids reminded her of us whenever a new Star Wars movie was out.

I would definitely put Harry Potter in the same league as Star Wars as far as cultural impact, but just not in the same medium. With Star Wars, it was the three original films, and with Harry Potter it was the books that led to everything else.

 

[chaseter]

Lets settle this debate here and now.

Emma Watson is hotter than Carrie Fisher.

 

[danoyse]

Lets settle this debate here and now.

Emma Watson is hotter than Carrie Fisher.

Or...

Daniel Radcliffe is a bigger Broadway star than Mark Hamill.

 

[redhawk23]

Lets settle this debate here and now.

Emma Watson is hotter than Carrie Fisher.

Maybe, but shes never worn this:

Although we can continue to pray to the Gods of the Interwbs that this eventually takes place.

 

[Erzengel]

The books did though. Harry Potter is different from star wars because it didn't start as movies. If youre going on purely a film basis, then no Harry Potter is not comparable, despite its huge grossings. However in terms of being widespread into a number of different mediums, Id wager that harry potter is. I mean star wars is more expansive still, but its also been around for 20 years longer. One can wager that the merchendising strategies of Harry Potter wouldn't exist if it weren't for star wars. I'd agree. However were there midnight release parties for books before Harry Potter? This series has also had its own influence on the way media is sold.

As others have said, Harry Potter has a theme park, a major investment that is likely to keep it around for a good while, its filming studios are being kept intact as a tour. It already has its own conventions not to mention a number of BANDS that sing exclusively about it. (wizard rock is the most perplexing part of HP fandom I must say.)

I disagree.

Star Wars has a TV show. Harry Potter does not. Star Wars usually a half a dozen new books each year, not to mention comic books. Don't remember seeing any new HP books or comic books. I'd wager that HP might have some comic adaption of a movie. Star Wars has 2 - 3 video games going across each system as well as on the computer each year. Harry Potter has a Lego game and games based on each movie, nothing expanding on it though, (i.e. X-Wing Starfighter games, KOTOR, Republic Commando etc.)

I'm talking about the books, at first Rowling couldn't find anyone to publish her books, it's success actually came from nowhere, in least the books success.

You really need to clarify what you post then.

 

[Steyin]

Other for me as I feel there hasn't been another 'Star Wars' so to speak. The only thing that can match the scale to me is a proper, modernized adaptation of ROBOTECH. I don't trust WB and Tobey handling it, so I'm afraid that it will never develop into what it could and should be.

 

[Lord]

Rowling doesn't really want to make all those tie ins because she wants to tell the harry potter universe stories herself, she could make the same George Lucas did with Star Wars but she only wants to tell what she should and not let anybody else mess with her stories, the movies are a bit different but she still had control over it and liked what she saw.
If she wanted to be all george Lucas she could have but she simply wants to write what she likes and move on.

 

[Erzengel]

Well that kinda goes against the whole spreading into all aspects of media when you're held to just the 7 books/8 movies.

That means you kinda have a finite pool of ideas to go to.

 

[Drizzle]

Lets settle this debate here and now.

Emma Watson is hotter than Carrie Fisher.

What's there to debate? Of course Emma Watson is more attractive than Carrie Fisher.

 

[chaseter]

Good. close thread.

 

[Spider-ManHero12]

Yeah, but Star Wars as whole changed the way visual effects are made as well as films.

 

[A Necessary Evil]

Lets settle this debate here and now.

Emma Watson is hotter than Carrie Fisher.

I second this.

 

[Infinity9999x]

If Rowling keeps expanding the universe, we will start seeing conventions. When she founds her own movie production company...then we are all in trouble

That reminds me of a book I've read. I don't know if anybody else has read the scifi novel Rainbow's End, but in that (set in the near future) JK Rowling actually owns half of England.

...Not that far fetched really haha.

But HP is getting close, I mean, it's already got it's own theme park.

 

[Erzengel]

It has a section of a theme park. I've been wanting to go for a while but there's 3 rides, 4 shops and a restaurant. It's not an entire theme park just for Harry Potter.

 

[danoyse]

But HP is getting close, I mean, it's already got it's own theme park.

Well, it's actually just a section of a theme park. But it's awesome, I was there last fall.

 

[Doc Ock]

It has a section of a theme park. I've been wanting to go for a while but there's 3 rides, 4 shops and a restaurant. It's not an entire theme park just for Harry Potter.

Not yet...

 

[Spider-Vader]

I don't think there's been another series like Star Wars, but Harry Potter is the closest thing there is to it.

 

[redhawk23]

I disagree.

Star Wars has a TV show. Harry Potter does not. Star Wars usually a half a dozen new books each year, not to mention comic books. Don't remember seeing any new HP books or comic books. I'd wager that HP might have some comic adaption of a movie. Star Wars has 2 - 3 video games going across each system as well as on the computer each year. Harry Potter has a Lego game and games based on each movie, nothing expanding on it though, (i.e. X-Wing Starfighter games, KOTOR, Republic Commando etc.)



You really need to clarify what you post then.

Look at it this way, did Star Wars have all of that in 1990?

Also, yes Star Wars has many books and things out every year, but every single Star Wars book published combined has sold less of a quarter of the number of copies that the 7 Harry Potter books have. I know its unfair do to inflation, but the Harry Potter movies are in fact the higest grossing series of all time.

Star Wars has a ride at MGM. Harry Potter has an entire themepark. (well maybe not entire park, but doesn't it have its own admission price?)

You can walk around Hogwarts. You can take a stroll through Echobase.

I agree that star wars is far more expansive, but I'm just saying as a singular cultural event of the past 20 years, the only thing I'd wager even aproaches a Star Wars level event is Harry Potter.

 

[Bunker]

Anyone who voted for anything other than LOTR should look themselves in the mirror and question their entire outlook on life. To me, the lasting effect of Star Wars is the quality of the movies, not the toys and all that other ****. LOTR is the only recent series that not only mirrors the quality of Star Wars, it surpasses it. The sheer sense of adventure I felt watching them in theaters has still not been topped. These films, like Star Wars, will be remembered as the definitive epic of our time. Harry Potter and all of its angsty teen BS is a sideshow at this point. When I look back at the first 6 HP films, I can't name a single scene or moment that left me in awe. Sure, they are some cool duels, but nothing that comes close to Gandalf's charge at Helm's Deep or the last minutes of Fellowship, which were pure unadulterated movie magic.

 

[Lord]

LOTR is better than Star wars original trilogy but still, while the trilogy is remembered now as the best one of all time people will go more for the books.
And LOTR was already like star wars, star wars was the new LOTR, harry potter is coming very close, but Rowling simply doesn't want others to mess with her work in a tv series or a comic book series with different characters and pretending that it's officially set in her books universe.
Actually i think that harry potter would do very well as a tv show considering that each book takes place during one year, so each book could be one season.
Rowling could do everything George Lucas did with star wars, but she's not that interested, only time will tell if she'll write more about harry potter.