I have two teenage daughters, age 17 and 15, whom I've mentioned before in some of my previous posts. They have both grown up to be avid readers, especially my older daughter Kelsey who could consume an adult size book in one day if she had the time. They are also huge Harry Potter fans and yes they were both at the midnight premiere last night of the movie Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which follows the 5th book in the series.
My daughters and their friends are prime examples of the audience of kids who started reading Harry Potter when they were young and have grown up and continue to grow up along with the characters. This movie they say shows the darker side of Harry, and as any of us parents with teenagers know, we have experienced the darker sides of our children as well (though not with magical powers!).
By visiting Warner Brothers official website for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, you'll see that it was not created for little kids. It contains lots of background information to read about the story and the production plus photos, videos, downloads, games and community links. There's a place to create a customized Death Eater Mask and upload it to the site where you can then view what others have created and rate them. It also has an entire section for Webmasters in which they can integrate the movie trailer, images, banners, and MySpace Skins to create their own websites.
Another tool they provided is a Widget that you can place on your blog or website to listen to the soundtrack. Here it is.
Warner Brothers appears to have stayed completely away from signing on any entertainment marketing partners for this movie which I believe is based on the terms they agreed to with the author, J.K. Rowling. She has been very involved in any promotional marketing for the series. The only other brand I saw on the official website is the retailer Hot Topic, which you can order a Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix Voldermort T-shirt.
My daughters and all the Harry Potter fans are now impatiently awaiting for June 21st when the last book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows goes on sale. A unprecedented 12 million copies of the book is being printed by Scholastic. My daughter Kelsey says she's going to re-read the 6th book between now and then to get back into the story. There is much speculation regarding whether Harry will survive this last story or not and once the book it out it probably won't remain a secret for long. Which is why they will all try to read through it very quickly.
For the book release Scholastic sponsored a Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows sweepstakes promotion which ended on June 15th. They drew 7 lucky winners who will celebrate the June 21st release with author J.K. Rowling at a midnight signing event at London's Natural History Museum. Rowling will sign books and do a reading at the event and each winner will receive a signed copy of the book. Scholastic also has a special website in which readers can "get ready for the new book".
I asked my daughter this morning what she thought of the movie, and she hesitated quite a bit before she answered. Of course as usual she says it didn't follow the book and especially how they ended it. For the majority of us adults who haven't read the books, we'll have to just live with the movie.
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