Who's more popular: Harry, Ron, and Hermione, or Bella and Edward? According to a recent comparison, the Hogwarts kids have the edge -- except in soundtrack sales, where the folk of Forks, Washington have them beat. That might be because the Twilight soundtrack is pop songs, and the Potter soundtracks are the films' John Williams scores. Maybe.
Comparing book sales, the Potterverse is way out ahead, with a total of over 53 million books sold since 2001 -- and Sorcerer's Stone, Chamber of Secrets, Prisoner of Azkaban,and Goblet of Fire all came out before then, so the actual number is even higher. The Twilight franchise has sold around 25 million, but it has three fewer books and fewer years on the shelf. Since 2008, though, Twilight totally wins: 1,767,272 HP books have been sold, while 22,975,112 Twilight ones have.
At the box office, Harry Potter's cuisine reigns supreme; even though Twilight brought in $36 million its opening day, that doesn't beat Sorcerer's Stone or Chamber of Secrets when their results are adjusted for inflation. Still, it's not as if a $191.4 million haul is anything to scoff at. Chin up, Twihards!
In the end, both franchises are mega-ultra-super-beloved, right? Doesn't that mean we're all winners, PopWatchers? Or can there be only one?
Read more:
Must List Live! Is the new Harry Potter movie too lovey-dovey?
Lisa Schwarzbaum's review of 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince'
Harry Potter makes EW's list of the 20 All-Time Coolest Heroes in Pop Culture
EW's 'Harry Potter' Trivia Challenge
EW University: Online 'Harry Potter' course
'Twilight' exclusive: Graphic novel version on the way!
EW's 'Twilight' HQ
Just reading this Sci Fi Wire interview with Christopher Heyerdahl, who'll play Volturi member Marcus in The Twilight Saga: New Moon, and I realized my patience for seeing an official image of that coven is wearing increasingly thin. "Everyone looks gorgeous and deliciously lifeless," Heyerdahl says. Release the Volturi tease now, Summit! (Or, at least at Comic-Con.)
As for Heyerdahl (Supernatural, Sanctuary, Stargate: Atlantis), I like where his head is at for his role:
"Here's how I approach him. When Marcus is brought in, he's there against his will. He and his love tried to leave an awfully long time ago. Through a series of tragic circumstances, the love of his life was killed, and he's now being forced to stay and use his powers for the betterment of the Volturi. He's not exactly there, waking up and looking forward to eternity. When Edward and Bella come walking in, his ability to sense the power of their connection is something that wakes him up, brings him back from the boredom of that eternal life and sparks something in him that brings Marcus as close to excitement as he can get. That idea has to be contained and expressed as little as possible to his rather power-hungry captain-in-arms, Aro, which makes for a rather interesting conflict. You might not know it, but Marcus is pretty darn excited by this love that he witnesses. At the same time, it causes him great pain with the memory of what he had and lost. It was very complex to play, especially when you are doing it with so few lines. It will be interesting to see how it is cut together."
What do you think of Heyedahl's take? And more importantly, are you ready to see an official Volturi image already?
For more impatient Twilight Saga: New Moon coverage, head to EW's Twilight HQ.
For those Twi-hards with an insatiable appetite for blood for knowing about and owning everything Twilight-related ever, the fine folks at Hollywood Crush have unearthed the latest vampire creation: Lip Venom V, a brand new specially designed Twilight lip stain from New Moon set favorite DuWop.
While I'm not one for buying movie merchandise (aside from the promo can of Booty Sweat that sits on my desk), this is one Twilight-branded product I might probably will buy. And it's not even because I actually use DuWop Lip Venom...it's mostly because it looks cool. Seriously -- the venom is mixed with lip stain in a little vial so it looks like blood.
Think of the options: I can wear it around my neck just like Angelina Jolie! Convince my friends that True Blood is real and they can actually get high off of vampire blood (V)! Or I can finally just broadcast the fact that really, inside, I am in fact a gigantic nerd.
My favorite part of this entire thing is how DuWop feels the need to drive the Twilight tie-in point home (''This product should be shaken before use to represent the blending of the human and vampire worlds''), when all they really needed to do was drop the T-word and they'd have more online pre-orders than their computer servers can handle.
Is this the Twilight item that will finally get you to shell out some hard-earned dolla billz? Or could you not care less about those stupid vampires and their stupid lipstick?
Dear Internet,
We love this delightful vampire vs. slayer mash-up with Edward Cullen and Buffy Summers, but we have to ask: What took so long?
Love,
PopWatch
One of my favorite movies is the stylish, but totally nuts, 2003 revenge thriller Old Boy. Directed by Korean auteur Chan-wook Park the film examines the question of what happens when you lock a guy up for years, and don't tell him why, but do allow him to perfect his fighting abilities. The answer is a lot more complicated than you might imagine but does involve some pretty shocking violence. And "pretty" is the right word for this crazy but beautiful-looking movie.
The latest from Chan-wook Park is Thirst, a vampire epic about an undead priest that comes out next month. My colleague Lisa Schwarzbaum saw the movie at Cannes earlier this year and wrote that it featured "scenes of
vivid, graphic, intently realistic sex between a vampire and a
vampiress-in-waiting." I have no reason to doubt her, even if the new red-band trailer below merely hints at such erotic shenanigans (though it does hint strongly enough to make it suitable-only-for-adults.)
Personally, I can't wait for Thirst and not just because I'm such a fan of Old Boy. This is one of the first vampire movies to come out since the release of the phenomenally successful, if in my view utterly abominable, Twilight and it seems possible that a few Twi-fans might be sucked (ha!) into checking it out. If so, I genuinely hope they like it. But, while both films may technically belong to the same genre, it's hard to imagine more different sensibilities than those of Chan-wook Park and Stephenie Meyer. I predict scenes of entertaining mayhem aplenty—and not all of it onscreen.
Are you a Twilight follower who is thinking of checking out Thirst? A fan of Old Boy? Or someone who is glad that the vampire movie is getting serious (and in, all likelihood, seriously gruesome) again?
Robert Pattinson was grazed by a cab today in New York City, as his bodyguards maneuvered him quickly across a street to avoid a crowd of fans, RadarOnline reports. One of the site's staffers witnessed the incident, which left Pattinson momentarily stunned but unharmed. One of his security team allegedly yelled "You see what you did, you almost killed him!" to the crowd, but we'll have to wait until the footage shows up on YouTube to confirm that.
Here's what I don't get: Presumably, the fans that feel passionately enough about Pattinson to tail him as he shoots Remember Me in Manhattan, would also have read his GQ cover story, in which he said his first thought when he sees a crowd is someone could very easily stab me. Why would you want to be one of the people who scares him? Or is that just the out-of-touch reasoning of a woman who shadowed her first and last celebrity in 1996? (For the record: I stayed on the opposite sidewalk of Alan Rickman as I followed him to a 7-Eleven in London. I did not go in after him in or wait for him to exit. Me and the detergent I was carrying continued on our way to the laundromat.)
Gossip Girl's Chace Crawford tops People's Hottest Bachelors list. It's an interesting choice: The show isn't huge in the ratings (or airing new episodes at the moment), but his biceps do look good in a summer polo. I like it. While I look forward to dissecting that issue on Friday the way I did Sports Illustrated's swimsuit extravaganza -- only enjoying the hour I spend staring at it in my office so much more -- let's take a peek at the online tease:
• I love that it took two women to interview Crawford. Translation: His hotness is so great that it must be diffused by two pairs of eyes. Note: I'll need to have Annie in my office when I look at his photos just in case...
• Chace likes a woman who can beat him at beer pong and watch football. I can do that!
• Chris Pine: I don't find this photo of him bruised in Star Trek all that hot, I've got to be honest. I'm guessing it's not the one in the magazine.
• Shia LaBeouf: Which movie do I need to see to make me "get" him?
• Adam Lambert: Classic crotch shot.
• 90210's Ryan Eggold and Twilight's Kellan Lutz: Looks like Hot "Bromantic" Bachelors is a category this year. I guess these two are posing as Butch and Sundance? This has the potential to be as awesomely bad as last year's Mario Lopez recreation spread. Friday cannot come soon enough.
Oh, Entertainment Tonight. You are so delusional cute referring to The Twilight Saga: New Moon as "one of the most secretive productions ever made." For starters, it's based on a book, which you know because in your "extended" set interview with Robert Pattinson he tells you, "It's kind of as close as possible to the book as you can get." Nothing to keep quiet about there. Then there's the little issue of the paparazzi, which stalked the Canadian and Italian sets and captured Robert Pattinson filming shirtless. That, of course, was kept very hush-hush.
What is the most secretive Hollywood production ever made?
For more: EW's top-secret 'Twilight' HQ
As long as behind-the-scenes footage of The Twilight Saga: New Moon keeps surfacing that reveals little more than Taylor Lautner's biceps, we thought we might as well make a separate PopWatch category for it. Ergo, the Taylor Lautner Bicep Watch. We launch with the video below. Taylor Lautner's biceps make their appearance at 2:10. (Robert Pattinson appears at 2:53, for eight seconds. Wah waaaaaah.)
For more: EW's 'Twilight' HQ
Michael Sheen, who plays Aro in the The Twilight Saga: New Moon, has said how seriously Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson take their roles in the franchise, and after reading this Metro World News interview with Stewart, I'm starting to believe him.
• Explaining Bella's role in the second film, she says, "She loses the man she's in love with, but she also loses her entire life plan, and she's so young to have to be forced into a decision like that. It's just a glorified, elaborate version of the worst breakup you've ever been through. All of a sudden you question everything. All of a sudden you know nothing and you're dropped in the middle of a freezing cold ocean.
Oddly, we have a character that's warm enough and bright enough to bring her out of that, and it's truly gut-ripping. Because as perfect as Jacob is for her, she holds on to an ideal, the ultimate fiery love that she has for Edward even though it's not comfortable, it's not practical and it's not a good idea. So it's really a very strong thing to do. It takes someone who really trusts themselves."
• Asked if Bella is introverted or just seeking an ideal, she says, "It's not that she's incredibly introverted. She's just yet to have found a connection that is truthful. She's a seeker of the truth. She's not one to get wrapped up in something that is a fantasy. She doesn't set herself up for disappointment. So that's what makes the story with her and Edward so compelling, in that this is a girl that normally wouldn't do something this crazy."
All this talk about Edward being "an ideal" and a "connection that is truthful" made me think back to a conversation I had with a friend who didn't understand why Bella and Edward were actually drawn to one another -- besides the fact that he's hellahot and her blood is like his own personal heroin. Is it more romantic if a love is somehow destined -- like in a scent or an imprint -- or if the connection is actually explained? Do you feel like it's explained in Twilight? Is it as basic as a lion wanting to take care of a lamb, and the lamb wanting to feel protected? (Probably not, right, since Bella isn't actually safe with Edward?) Maybe Bella is the only teen in Forks who ever wanted to listen to Edward's Debussy CD?
Read more: EW.com's 'Twilight' Central
