Harry Potter II Earns $88.4 Mil

This installment of the fantasy series is the third best opening ever behind Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone with $90.2 million and this summer’s Spider-Man with $114.8 million. Warner Bros. has been prepping the third chapter in the HP series, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which is set to begin shooting early next year.

The question on everyone’s mind, it seems, is how they are going to pull off a seven movie deal with Warner Bros. original schedule of one movie a year to follow the books. The original idea was that the actors would grow with their characters. Very simple in theory, and the first two installments of the film were shot back to back and released in consecutive Novembers, with filming on the third chapter to begin this November. Now here is where the snag hits – with different problems arising there will be a delay in shooting and the next film will not be released until sometime in 2004.

With the loss of Richard Harris, who portrayed Albus Dumbledore in the first two films, and director Chris Columbus pulling out, it is uncertain what the future holds for the Harry Potter series. The three young stars - Daniel Radcliffe (Harry), Emma Watson (Hermione) and Rupert Grint (Ron) – are ready for a break and to get back to some sort of normalcy. Seven major movies in seven years is a bit much to ask of any stars, let alone ones that are so young. If they don’t look to recast they may have a problem by the time the seventh movie is made, if it ever gets made. Radcliffe will probably be a married man with three kids playing an eighteen-year old. That is about as crazy as Ralph Macchio still playing the Karate Kid.