English Entertainment
Warner unveils interactive web experience for new Harry Potter film
California: Warner Bros. Pictures has unveiled a new web experience dedicated to the world of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on its site www.harrypotter.com.
In addition to serving as a comprehensive site and community forum devoted to the magical world of Harry Potter, the newly expanded Harrypotter.com features exclusive content, interactive fan opportunities and news about the upcoming film, the second instalment in the Harry Potter film series.
The newly-expanded website will continue to capture the magic and spirit of Potter, while providing an exclusive entrée to the live action adaptation of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. In the first year of its launch in 2001, Harrypotter.com attracted 25 million unique visitors, drew one million subscribers to the web-based newsletter and welcomed fans from over 40 countries to view the London premiere of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. This year, Harrypotter.com has attracted 459 million pageviews, with over three million interactive postcards sent and over 3.6 million magical creatures made via the site’s interactive destinations, claims an official release. In addition, the recently re-launched community forum has experienced near exponential growth, with viewers registering over 11 million pageviews per month on the message boards, the release says.
Developed by Warner Bros. Online in conjunction with DNA Studio, the re-launched Harrypotter.com features a new animated short film welcoming fans to the site, a new homepage and the interactive game Escape From the Dursleys in which participants can help Harry Potter escape the clutches of his controlling family and return to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The site will be regularly updated with news and other Potter-inspired interactive destinations, including: Wizard Duels, in which fans can challenge each other to spell-casting contests.
Warner Bros. Pictures plans to roll out customised versions of the expanded Harrypotter.com in nine languages, including the full roster of features available on the English-language site. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is scheduled for a November 2002 release.
English Entertainment
Ellison takes his Paramount-Warner Bros case straight to theater owners
The Skydance chief goes to CinemaCon with promises and a skeptical crowd waiting
CALIFORNIA: David Ellison strode into a room packed with thousands of cinema owners and executives at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Thursday and did something rather bold: he looked them in the eye and asked them to trust him.
The chief executive of Paramount Skydance vowed that his company would release a minimum of 30 films a year if regulators greenlight its proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, a deal that has made theater owners deeply, and loudly, nervous.
“I wanted to look every single one of you in the eye and give you my word,” Ellison told the crowd. “Once we combine with Warner Bros, we are going to make a minimum of 30 films annually across both studios.”
It was a confident pitch. Whether it landed is another matter. Cinema operators have already called on regulators to block the deal, and scepticism in the room was hardly concealed.
Ellison pushed back by pointing to recent form. Paramount, born from the merger of Paramount Global and Skydance Media last August, plans to release 15 films this year, nearly double the eight it put out in 2025. Progress, he argued, was already underway.
He also threw theater owners a bone they have long been chasing: all films, he pledged, would run exclusively in cinemas for a minimum of 45 days, drawing applause from a crowd that has spent years fighting for exactly that commitment across the industry.
“People can speculate all they want,” Ellison said, “but I am standing here today telling you personally that you can count on our complete commitment. And we’ll show you we mean it.”
Fine words. The regulators, however, will have the last one.
