"Staying true to the original magical legend, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire continues the saga."
"The film breaks the declining trend of the series' previous entries, becoming the best Harry Potter film since The Sorcerer's Stone."
"Mike Newell avoided retaining too many of the original novel's excessive details, opting instead for selective cuts and adjustments. At the same time, he preserved the book's most interesting moments and magical charm.
As audiences watch the Gryffindor trio embark on their tense adventures, they can still laugh lightheartedly along the way.
The pacing of the film is brisk, the story structure is complete, and it is definitely worth watching."
After the premiere, reviews for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire flooded in, most of them overwhelmingly positive.
A few negative reviews focused on issues like editing and certain scenes appearing too dark.
Some also criticized the depiction of Harry Potter's affection for Cho Chang (played by the "Fairy Sister") and the lack of depth in portraying his heartbreak.
However, this was understandable. After all, the Harry Potter story as a whole is about a young wizard's growth, not his romantic troubles.
What truly captivates audiences is undoubtedly the dazzling magic and all the strange, wonderful happenings.
If people want to see the tender love stories of youth, they might as well watch Gilbert's Flipped.
Before the premiere, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire held two advance fan screenings. The film received an impressive 91% approval rating and an average grade of A.
With critical acclaim and strong audience word-of-mouth, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire grossed 11.23 million dollars in its midnight release.
This midnight box office ranks second among all Harry Potter films, just behind The Prisoner of Azkaban.
The reason is simple: The Prisoner of Azkaban was released during the summer season, while The Goblet of Fire premiered in November's fall-winter slot, which naturally produced different results.
However, on its official release day, November 18, the film achieved a stunning 37.09 million dollars on opening day. It shattered the sluggish fall box office ceiling, and the surging crowds completely melted away the chill of the winter season.
As year-end revenue cornerstones for both Disney and Warner Bros., the two studios poured enormous resources into promoting and marketing the film.
It could be said that unless one lived completely cut off from the world, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was visible everywhere—whether in American cities, towns, or even rural villages.
The film continued its box office frenzy on Saturday, earning another 42.68 million dollars, entering a phase of feverish earnings.
By Sunday, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire grossed an additional 32.25 million dollars in North America, pushing its opening weekend total to an incredible 112.02 million dollars.
This figure was outstanding. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire thus became the fifth film in history to break 100 million dollars in its opening weekend, following The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Spider-Man, Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, and Shrek 2.
Its 112.02 million-dollar debut also made it the fourth-highest opening weekend in film history at that time.
And of course, the number one spot still belonged to Gilbert's masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
Beyond North America, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was released simultaneously in nineteen countries and regions worldwide, grossing 88 million dollars in its first weekend.
Among them, the United Kingdom contributed 28.57 million dollars, Germany 20.31 million, and even Mexico achieved an impressive 6.63 million.
In the following week, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was set to roll out in seventy more countries and markets, expected to generate even greater box office results.
Box office aside, an even greater surprise came from merchandise sales.
It was well known that every time a Star Wars film was released, it drove massive sales of related merchandise, and the Harry Potter franchise was no exception.
Within just the first three days of its opening weekend, Harry Potter merchandise in North America exceeded 80 million dollars in sales. Overseas, even in regions where the film had not yet premiered, the cumulative total had already reached 66 million dollars.
Long before this, Gilbert had already partnered with Disney and Warner Bros. to set up merchandise factories in China.
When these products, manufactured at costs calculated in RMB, were sold worldwide in U.S. dollars, the profits from the merchandise industry became astonishingly clear.
Take a simple example: the 10-centimeter Hermione figurine. The average production cost per figure was no more than 15 RMB, and the more units produced, the lower the cost became.
However, that same figurine could be sold in North America for 39.9 U.S. dollars. At the time, the exchange rate was about 1 USD to 8.27 RMB.
That meant each figurine's retail price converted to roughly 329.97 RMB—over twenty-two times its production cost.
And that was just one figurine. There were many other products: magic wands, wizard hats, robes—countless items.
Magic wands in particular were wildly profitable. Their production costs ranged from 5 to over 10 RMB, yet they were resold in North America for prices from a dozen to over a hundred dollars each.
Some limited-edition wands were even designed by master jewelers, with single wands priced as high as tens of thousands of U.S. dollars—and still, they were constantly sold out.
It was clear that the Harry Potter franchise's ability to extract money from fans was truly terrifying.
Because the merchandise business was so obscenely profitable—almost like legalized robbery—even Mexican drug traffickers stopped dealing drugs during the film's release period.
Instead, they mobilized groups of Mexicans living along the U.S.-Mexico border, organizing families to produce counterfeit Harry Potter merchandise.
When the counterfeit goods entered the U.S. market, they became so popular that demand outstripped supply. The drug traffickers were stunned. Producing fake merchandise made money faster than dealing drugs, and the risks were much lower.
Unfortunately, only blockbuster film franchises could create that kind of market effect. Counterfeiting was unstable and couldn't sustain long-term profits. Once the movie craze faded, the traffickers had no choice but to return to drug dealing.
Of course, whether it was drug trafficking or counterfeiting, both were criminal acts and subject to federal prosecution.
At that time, the federal government was very serious about cracking down on both, especially piracy. Any lax enforcement risked drawing trouble from congressmen sponsored by Gilbert, Disney, and Warner Bros.
There were no fools among the movie studios. Over the years, companies like Universal, Paramount, and 20th Century Fox's parent company had all invested in building factories in China.
The strong returns quickly encouraged even more merchandise manufacturers to move their operations there, and local governments enthusiastically welcomed them.
Riding this wave, Universal Studios seized the opportunity. Following Disney and Warner's theme park projects in Shanghai, Universal also signed a deal for its own theme park project and it was soon finalized.
The butterfly effect swept through like a hurricane, scattering the familiar details Gilbert once knew. Fortunately, the overall direction and trend had not changed, and Gilbert could still recognize the familiar trajectory.
Far away in Australia, Gilbert continued to monitor the commercial performance of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
It did not disappoint him. The film's box office performance was exceptionally strong, igniting a wave of moviegoing enthusiasm at year's end.
He also noticed that Robert Pattinson's role was attracting a lot of attention—perhaps because he was particularly handsome?
Gilbert's attention toward Robert Pattinson mainly came from recalling another fantasy film series often described as belonging to the post-Harry Potter era—The Twilight Saga, which Pattinson also starred in.
Gilbert wasn't interested in directing that project himself—that would have been beneath his status—but he could certainly acquire the rights and have Melon Studio produce it. After all, no one ever complained about having too many successful franchises.
...
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