harry potter and the deathly hollows Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Devout fans of Stephanie Meyer's "Twilight Saga" might not appreciate the comparisons, but it's easy to see from the outside that the books are being treated by the entertainment industry like the second coming of Harry Potter. Only with vampires instead of wizards. Yet despite all the excitement surrounding tomorrow's release (or tonight's release, if you're a real fan) of Meyer's fourth and final installment, "Breaking Dawn," I don't see the series really being as successful. I can't imagine a whole new Twilight-themed music genre forming, for instance ("vampire rock" would just be goth rock, anyway). And even with all the screams heard in Hall H last week during the Twilight panel at Comic-Con, I don't believe the movie is going to be anywhere as big as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (I see it maybe clearing half of Sorcerer Stone's $318 mill. domestic take).

If the first Twilight movie is big enough to warrant further adaptations of the Saga, the franchise could possibly see itself being compared to Harry Potter in another way, at least if Meyer has any say in the way "Breaking Dawn" makes it to the big screen. Similar to how the seventh and final Potter novel, "Deathly Hallows" is being split in half for two separate films (the first part will be released in December 2010, with the second part arriving six months later), Meyer tells MTV that there needs to be two separate movies made out of the final book in her series. And she knows exactly where the story should be split (see if you can figure out where while reading the book this week), which makes me wonder why she didn't just write five books rather than four.

To hear the suggestion straight from the author's mouth, check out MTV's interview with Meyer after the jump.

There are still two Harry Potter movies to go, but the franchise is already the top-grossing series of all time with $4.47 billion in worldwide earnings. This figure puts it above Star Wars and its sequels and prequels ($4.23 billion) and the 21 official James Bond movies plus the unofficial Never Say Never Again ($4.44 billion). The success came over Labor Day weekend as Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix reached a worldwide box office gross of $923.7 million. With it continuing to take in money overseas, that number will only get bigger. And then there's the next installments, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which will add at least another billion to the franchise total. Of course, the Bond series will also continue once the Potter films are done and could regain the spot -- still, at only a quarter of the number of 007 installments, those more-family friendly Potters are doing some serious business.

Then again, there's always the issues of inflation and rising ticket prices. According to inflated adjustments, the Bond films have made $10.9 billion (provided by Wikipedia, minus Never Say Never Again). Also, according to Variety, the Star Wars movies have actually out-grossed the Harry Potter series domestically ($2.18 billion vs. $1.41 billion -- without inflation adjustments). So, as usual with box office records and announcements, this is only big news if you want it to be. Warner Bros. COO Alan Horn told Variety that it isn't about competing with franchises like Star Wars and 007; it's just bragging about a "fun number." Anyway, it never should be about what franchise makes the most money; it should be about which franchise is the best, and we all know what that is.